Justice Department Backs Musk in Court Fight to Kill the EU's €120 Million DSA Fine on X

The United States government is stepping into Elon Musk's fight with Brussels. The Justice Department has asked the EU General Court in Luxembourg to let it intervene on the side of Musk and X in their bid to overturn the European Commission's €120 million fine under the Digital Services Act.

It is an unusual move. Washington is not just criticizing a European penalty from a podium, it wants a seat in the courtroom where the penalty is being tested.

There are actually two cases. One was filed by X Internet and X Holdings. The other was filed by Musk in his own name. Both ask the court to cancel the Commission's decision of 5 December 2025, which was the first fine ever issued under the DSA.

The Commission found that X broke the law's transparency rules in three ways: its paid blue checkmarks, its advertising database, and the limits it placed on researchers trying to access public data.

The detail that seems to have drawn Washington in is who ends up paying. The fine applies to X and Musk jointly, and according to the Justice Department, the Commission calculated it using the worldwide turnover of businesses Musk controls, not just X's own revenue.

Brett Shumate, the assistant attorney general who runs the department's civil division, said the Commission "inappropriately attempted to expand its regulatory authority to reach American companies not present or operating within its jurisdiction." The department also objects to how Brussels decides who counts as the provider of a digital service, a test that let it reach Musk as a private person along with other companies he owns that have nothing to do with X.

The Justice Department says it coordinated the filing with the State Department, and argues the US has a clear interest in consistent rules on territorial jurisdiction and in protecting digital services headquartered in America. The request, as Quartz reported, is an application to intervene. It does not cancel the fine, and the court still has to decide whether to admit the US as a party.

Brussels is not blinking. Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the Commission is "ready to defend" its decision in court.

The DSA has become a recurring flashpoint between the EU and American tech, from X to the question of whether ChatGPT should be treated as a very large online search engine. This case is now the first where the US government itself wants to argue the other side before a European judge.