The US Department of Justice is seeking to join Elon Musk and X’s challenge to overturn the EU’s €120m fine, first reported by Bbc. The dispute centers on X’s paid blue check marks, which the European Commission said deceived users by failing to meaningfully verify who was behind an account.
The DOJ filed an application with the EU’s General Court backing Musk’s and X’s effort to dismiss the case. It argues that a provision in the court’s statute allows a state to intervene if it can establish an interest in the outcome.
The department says the US has a clear interest in ensuring any Commission decision is applied consistently with how territorial jurisdiction is generally understood in international law. It also wants to ensure the case would not otherwise prejudice US-headquartered digital services that contribute significantly to the US economy.
On Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said the Commission had “inappropriately attempted” to extend its reach to American companies outside its control.
European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said Friday the bloc was ready to defend its position, arguing it had a strong case because of the alleged Digital Services Act breach. The action marked the Commission’s first official non-compliance decision under the DSA, one of two mandatory rulebooks governing online platforms in the EU.
EU regulators also accused X of failing to provide transparency around its adverts and denying researchers access to public data.
Marco Rubio and the Federal Communications Commission had criticized the regulator, accusing it of attacking and censoring US firms. The Commission denied targeting any specific nationality and said it was protecting its digital and democratic standards.
The legal fight now joins a challenge to X’s paid verification labels with the US government’s stated objection to EU authority over American companies. The EU is also conducting several other investigations into X, including one over concerns its integrated AI assistant Grok was used to create sexualised images of real people.