## TikTok Slapped with $600 Million Fine for Sending European User Data to China
TikTok has been hit with a massive €530 million (approximately $600 million) fine for violating the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) levied the penalty after finding that the popular video-sharing app was transferring European users’ data to servers in China without ensuring adequate protection under EU standards.
The DPC specifically cited China’s anti-terrorism and counter-espionage laws as potential risks, raising concerns that Chinese authorities could access the sensitive data of European users. The fine is broken down into two parts: €485 million for the data transfer itself and €45 million for TikTok’s privacy policy failing to adequately explain the data transfers to users.
While TikTok updated its privacy policy in 2022, which the court deemed compliant, and has pledged to invest €12 billion (around $13.6 billion) in EU data centers, these efforts weren’t enough to mitigate the GDPR violation.
Throughout the investigation, TikTok maintained that user data was only remotely accessed from China, not stored there. However, the company recently admitted to the court that “limited” European data had, in fact, been stored in China and has since been deleted. This admission has prompted the DPC to warn that “further regulatory action” may be necessary.
This $600 million fine is the third-largest GDPR penalty to date, surpassed only by those imposed on Meta and Amazon. Notably, TikTok, which has its European headquarters in Ireland, was already fined $367 million in 2023 by the same Irish court for its handling of children’s data.
The timing of this ruling is particularly significant as TikTok’s future in the United States remains uncertain. The app was previously banned in the US over similar data security concerns and fears of potential control by Chinese authorities. While the ban has faced repeated delays, the long-term status of TikTok in the US hangs in the balance. This GDPR fine further underscores the mounting pressure on TikTok to address data security concerns and ensure compliance with international regulations.