{"id":2755,"date":"2026-02-20T14:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/2755\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T14:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:58:07","slug":"musk-launches-landmark-legal-battle-against-biased-brussels-over-e120m-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/2755\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk launches landmark legal battle against \u2018biased\u2019 Brussels over \u20ac120m fine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk is suing the EU over a landmark \u20ac120m (\u00a3105m) fine against his social media company X<\/a>, accusing Brussels officials of bias.<\/p>\n

X launched an appeal against December\u2019s fine at the EU General Court earlier this week, in what is the first legal challenge to Europe\u2019s tough digital laws.<\/p>\n

The challenge will escalate a row between Mr Musk, Brussels and the White House after the Trump administration claimed EU policies are suppressing free speech.<\/p>\n

Five Europeans were banned from visiting the US shortly after X\u2019s fine, with Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, claiming that Brussels was seeking to \u201ccensor\u201d American sites.<\/p>\n

X, formerly known as Twitter, filed an appeal at the EU General Court in Luxembourg on Monday, alleging \u201cprosecutorial bias\u201d by EU officials.<\/p>\n

The appeal also challenges key aspects of the EU\u2019s Digital Services Act (DSA), which is the law designed to crack down on hate speech and misinformation.<\/p>\n

The European Commission fined X in December after ruling it had broken rules on advertising transparency. It also found that the site\u2019s system of charging users for \u201cblue tick\u201d verification was \u201cdeceptive\u201d.<\/p>\n

X subsequently banned the Commission from advertising on the service, while Mr Musk said the EU should be \u201cabolished\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s appeal will be a landmark case, as it will challenge how the Commission calculates fines and whether there are adequate checks and balances on officials.<\/p>\n

It will also test whether the DSA conflicts with freedom of expression laws in Europe. The laws require \u201cvery large online platforms\u201d to take steps to stamp out illegal content or posts that could threaten electoral integrity.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has repeatedly threatened the EU over the laws, which it says unfairly punish American companies that are mostly affected by the regulations.<\/p>\n

Adina Portaru, a Brussels-based lawyer for ADF International, which is providing support to X\u2019s challenge, said the EU was threatening free speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a crackdown on X by authorities who view a free speech platform as a serious threat to their total control of online narratives,\u201d she said. \u201cBy targeting X, they are targeting the free speech of individuals across the world who simply want to share ideas online free from censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Portaru added: \u201cIf the Commission\u2019s concentration of power goes unchallenged, it will further cement a highly problematic standard for speech control across the EU and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

X is facing a series of investigations in Europe, including in the UK, where Ofcom is investigating the company over sexual images of women and children generated by its Grok AI bot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A European Commission spokesman said: \u201cWe can confirm that X has appealed our decision. The Commission is ready to defend its decision in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

X said: \u201cThis EU decision resulted from an incomplete and superficial investigation, grave procedural errors, a tortured interpretation of the obligations under the DSA and systematic breaches of rights of defence and basic due process requirements, suggesting prosecutorial bias.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis landmark case is the first judicial challenge to a DSA fine and could set important precedents for enforcement, penalty calculations and fundamental rights protections under the 2022 regulation. X remains committed to user safety and transparency while defending our users\u2019 access to the only global town square.\u201d<\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk is suing the EU over a landmark \u20ac120m (\u00a3105m) fine against his social media company X,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18,2348,1592,2350,277,2352,2349,2353,2347,2351],"class_list":{"0":"post-2755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-brussels","9":"tag-digital-services","10":"tag-elon-musk","11":"tag-eu-general-court","12":"tag-european-commission","13":"tag-free-speech","14":"tag-general-court","15":"tag-legal-challenge","16":"tag-social-media-company","17":"tag-the-commission"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}