TikTok is set to be fined more than €500m by its European regulator, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), over a data privacy breach under GDPR.
TikTok continues to make headlines today with reports that Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) will hit its parent company ByteDance with a fine later this month that could be upward of €500m, according to reporting from Bloomberg.
This would be the third highest fine for any company under Europe’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), following huge fines on Meta (€1.2b) and Amazon (€746m) in recent years.
The fine would follow a lengthy investigation, instigated by then data commissioner Helen Dixon back in 2021 into the transfer of personal data to China by TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance. TikTok had already been fined €345m in 2023, following an inquiry into the processing of personal data for users under the age of 18 and age verification measures for users under 13, during the period between 31 July and 31 December 2020.
The DPC found the Chinese-owned app had infringed on GDPR through its public-by-default settings, the Family Pairing feature, the lax age-verification process and the use of dark patterns to nudge users towards more privacy-intrusive options during sign-up.
This latest fine would result from a second DPC inquiry that focused on TikTok’s compliance with GDPR requirements when it came to transferring data to third countries. Then data protection commissioner Helen Dixon had previously signalled that she believed some of TikTok’s EU data may be accessible to teams in China.
The DPC is the lead supervisory authority for TikTok in the EU as the social media company has its European base in Ireland.
The news comes at a time when ByteDance is under pressure to divest of the majority of TikTok in the US, in a deal that is being hashed out between Donald Trump’s White House and some of the biggest investors in the US.
Speaking to the press pool on Airforce One yesterday, Trump said the deal would be announced this week, and even mooted the idea of easing the controversial tariffs announced on China if it sanctions the deal.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks continues to be the famous TikTok algorithm. Investors want it to be US-owned, while the Chinese government has always insisted the algorithm could not be part of any deal.
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