BRUSSELS, March 26 (Reuters) - Snap-owned

Snapchat was hit with an EU investigation on Thursday as

regulators warned that the social platform appears not to be

doing enough to prevent child grooming and the sale of illegal

goods.

The EU probe is under the Digital Services Act, which

requires big online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and

harmful content or risk fines as much as 6% of their global

annual sales.

"From grooming and exposure to illegal products to account

settings that undermine minors' safety, Snapchat appears to have

overlooked that the Digital Services Act demands high safety

standards for all users," EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in

a statement.

The European Commission, charged with enforcing the act,

said it suspected that Snapchat does not have sufficient

safeguards to prevent children from being contacted by users

looking to exploit them sexually or for criminal activities.

It said the company's content moderation tools were

ineffective in preventing the spread of information pointing

users to the sale of illegal products such as drugs or

age-restricted products such as vapes and alcohol.

The Commission said it will take over Dutch regulators'

investigation opened last September into the sales of vapes to

children on Snapchat.

Other areas of EU concern include Snapchat's

self-declaration age assurance tool which regulators said is

insufficient, its inadequate default account settings, and its

mechanisms to allow users to report dark patterns in its design.