X's DSA Action Plan Accepted — What It Requires, Why It Happened, and the Broader EU Regulatory Battle

The €120 Million Fine and the Deadlines That Led to This Plan

The record fine was imposed on December 5, 2025 — the first-ever non-compliance penalty under the DSA — for three distinct transparency violations :

• Article 25(1) – Misleading use of the paid "blue checkmark" system (deceptive design/dark patterns)
• Article 39 – Inadequate advertising transparency (a sparse and difficult-to-use ad repository)
• Article 40(12) – Barriers to researcher access to public data

The total fine of €120 million comprised separate penalties for each violation . Under the DSA, fines can reach up to 6% of a platform's global annual turnover .

When issuing the fine, the Commission gave X three staggered compliance deadlines :

• 60 working days (by late February 2026) to inform the Commission of specific measures to end the misleading blue checkmark violation
• 90 working days (by early March 2026) to submit a plan fixing advertising transparency shortcomings and restoring researcher access to public data
• The action plan accepted in July 2026 is the formalization and approval of that second deadline's submission, now with a six-month implementation runway

X has appealed the €120 million fine, and the appeal is ongoing .

The Separate, Ongoing Investigation into X's Risk Assessments

It is critical to understand what the July 2026 action plan does not resolve. Beyond the transparency violations, the European Commission has a separate, still-active formal investigation into whether X breached its systemic risk assessment and mitigation obligations under Articles 34 and 35 of the DSA .

This investigation, initially opened in December 2023, was extended in January 2026 to also examine risks linked to X's recommender systems and the deployment of the Grok AI chatbot in the EU . The probe assesses whether X properly identified and mitigated risks such as the spread of illegal content, disinformation, and election manipulation . In connection with this, the Commission has ordered X to preserve all internal documents and data related to Grok until at least December 31, 2026 . This investigation remains ongoing and is entirely distinct from the transparency violations settled in the July 2026 action plan .

Broader Context: Transatlantic Regulatory Tensions

The DSA enforcement against X unfolds during an unprecedented period of U.S. diplomatic pressure against the law itself. In August 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a diplomatic cable directing U.S. embassies in Europe to lobby EU governments to repeal or amend the DSA, arguing it restricts free speech and burdens American tech companies .

This pressure escalated further in January 2026 when the U.S. State Department imposed visa restrictions on five European officials involved in drafting the DSA and the Digital Markets Act . A CSIS analysis described this as a "containment doctrine" using trade tools to push back against EU digital regulation . The U.S. House Judiciary Committee also published a report branding the DSA a "foreign censorship threat" .

Bottom Line

The July 2026 action plan resolves only the three transparency-related violations (Articles 25, 39, and 40) that triggered the €120 million fine. The plan requires independent audits and a six-month implementation period. But X still faces a separate, unresolved investigation into whether it properly assessed systemic risks under Articles 34–35 — a probe that has been expanded to cover its AI chatbot Grok. These enforcement actions unfold against a backdrop of unprecedented U.S. diplomatic pressure seeking to weaken or dismantle the DSA itself, making X's case a central front in a much larger regulatory and geopolitical conflict.