US Government Seeks to Join Elon Musk’s Challenge Against EU Fine on X

The United States government has formally asked to intervene in a legal case brought by Elon Musk and his social media company X against a €120 million ($136.5 million) fine imposed by the European Commission.

The US Department of Justice filed its application on Thursday before the European Union’s General Court in Luxembourg, supporting separate legal challenges brought by X and Musk seeking to annul the European Commission’s December 2025 decision.

The European Commission fined X €120 million after a two-year investigation under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). The Commission said X breached transparency obligations relating to its blue-check verification system, its advertising repository and access to public data for researchers. It described the December 2025 penalty as the first non-compliance decision under the DSA.

In its intervention request, the US Justice Department argued that the European Commission had improperly extended its regulatory authority to American companies that are not present or operating within its jurisdiction.

Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said Washington was concerned about the implications of the EU decision for US-based digital companies and the limits of foreign regulatory jurisdiction.

The department said the case could have broader implications for large online platforms headquartered in the United States that provide services to users in the EU. It also raised concerns about the Commission’s treatment of Musk personally and other companies under his ownership that, according to the US filing, were not connected to the digital services involved in the case.

Musk had already filed a challenge against the Commission’s decision. EU legal records show that his case, Musk v Commission, was lodged before the General Court in February 2026 and seeks annulment of the decision or, alternatively, cancellation or reduction of the fines imposed on him.

The US intervention adds a government-to-government dimension to what began as a dispute between a technology company and the EU regulator. The Trump administration has previously criticised aspects of EU technology regulation, while European officials have maintained that the bloc’s digital rules apply based on services offered in the EU rather than the nationality of the companies involved.

The European Commission has continued to enforce the DSA while also working with X on compliance. In July 2026, it accepted an action plan from X addressing transparency and researchers’ access to public data, while saying it would continue monitoring implementation.

The General Court will now consider the US government’s request to intervene alongside the underlying legal challenges.