The European Union has fined ByteDance Ltd., the owner of TikTok, €530 million for illegal transfer of user data to China, warning that it failed to protect that information from Chinese state services.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, TikTok’s main regulator in Europe, said the company breached the bloc’s data-protection rulebook. It has given ByteDance six months to halt all unlawful transfers or face further action.
The DPC noted that TikTok revealed in April that it had stored the personal data of European users on servers in China, a disclosure that conflicted with earlier filings the company made to the regulator, as reported by Bloomberg.
“TikTok did not address potential access by Chinese authorities to EEA personal data under Chinese anti-terrorism, counter-espionage and other laws identified by TikTok as materially diverging from EU standards,” said Graham Doyle, a deputy commissioner at the DPC.
TikTok said it will appeal the decision in full, insisting it has never received a request for European user data from Chinese authorities nor handed over such information.
This €530 million fine ranks as the third-largest under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. Only Meta Platforms Inc. faces a bigger penalty of €1.2 billion, and Amazon.com Inc. was fined €746 million.
TikTok has been under the Irish regulator’s microscope before. In September 2023, it was fined €345 million for shortcomings in how it handled children’s personal data.
The regulator has also warned about major tech firms sending Europeans’ personal information outside the bloc without proper safeguards or legal justification.
Ireland’s inquiry into TikTok dates back to 2021 when the agency’s then-head raised alarms that maintenance teams and AI engineers in China could access EU user data under local security laws.
Beyond privacy concerns, TikTok is facing scrutiny under the EU’s Digital Services Act. Authorities suspect it failed to stop fake accounts and prevent foreign interference during Romania’s presidential election last year.
The platform is also being investigated over its design, which critics say promotes addictive use, and whether it does enough to protect minors on its service.
TikTok also plans to invest €1 billion ($1.14 billion) in its first data centre in Finland to keep European user data on local soil. The move is aimed at easing concerns that the Chinese government might gain access to personal information from platform users.
At the same time, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is exploring a major project in Brazil, holding talks with renewable‐energy producer Casa dos Ventos to build a 900 MW data centre at the Pecém port complex in Ceará.
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