United States Files Request to Intervene in Case Brought by X Corp. and Elon Musk Seeking to Annul Decision by European Commission
Thursday, September 24, 2026 - The United States filed an application to intervene in the captioned cases, X Internet and X Holdings v. Commission, Case No. T-114/26 and Musk v. Commission,Case No. T-121/26, before the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union (GCEU) in Luxembourg in support of the applications to annul the Dec. 5, 2025, Decision of the European Commission that found them liable for violations of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and imposed a fine of €120,000,000 jointly and severally, based on “the total worldwide annual turnover of the single economic unit ultimately controlled by Elon Musk or that of X Holdings Corp.”
“The European Commission inappropriately attempted to expand its regulatory authority to reach American companies not present or operating within its jurisdiction,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will not tolerate the European Commission engaging in regulatory overreach to try and control American engines of innovation and economic growth.”
Article 40 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union provides that a natural or legal person, including a State, may intervene in disputes before the Court where that person “can establish an interest in the result of the case to the Court.”
This is the first case challenging an enforcement action under the DSA to reach the General Court. The Department of Justice coordinated with the Department of State in preparing the intervention application, given the broad interest in protecting American companies from foreign extraterritorial enforcement action and the implications for U.S.-EU relations. The United States has a clear interest in ensuring that the effect of any judgment concerning the Commission’s Decision is consistent with how territorial jurisdiction is generally understood in international law, and does not otherwise prejudice, U.S.-headquartered digital services companies, which contribute significantly to the U.S. economy. The United States has significant concerns about the European Commission’s approach to determining who is the “provider” of digital services for the purposes of attributing liability under the DSA, and whether this approach is consistent with established principles and limitations on the appropriate reach of extraterritorial jurisdiction and the “corporate veil” principle, which is fundamental to the U.S. economic and legal system, and many others, which provides that that there is, in general, no entitlement to look behind the corporate structure in order to take action against shareholders. Critically, the Commission’s approach extended legal scrutiny to Mr. Musk himself as a private individual and implicated entirely separate and unrelated American corporate entities under his ownership, despite those entities having no connections to the digital services at issue.
If the approach in the European Commission Decision is upheld, this may have significant implications for “very large online platforms” and other similar entities operating in the digital services sector within the EU, many of which are domiciled (at parent level) within the United States. The United States looks forward to the opportunity to address these concerns and issues in detail before the General Court.
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
Source: Justice.gov
