Irish Data Protection Committee fines TikTik EUR 530M

The Irish Data Protection Commission has announced its final decision following an Inquiry into TikTok Technology Limited. This Inquiry was launched by the DPC, in its role as the Lead Supervisory Authority for TikTok, to examine the lawfulness of TikTok’s transfers of personal data of users of the TikTok platform in the EEA to the People’s Republic of China. In addition, the Inquiry examined whether the provision of information to users in relation to such transfers met TikTok’s transparency requirements as required by the GDPR. The decision, which was made by the Commissioners for Data Protection, Dr Des Hogan and Mr Dale Sunderland, and has been notified to TikTok, finds that TikTok infringed the GDPR regarding its transfers of EEA User Data to China and its transparency requirements . The decision includes administrative fines totaling EUR 530M and an order requiring TikTok to bring its processing into compliance within 6 months. The decision also includes an order suspending TikTok’s transfers to China if processing is not brought into compliance within this timeframe. Publicly traded companies in the social media space that compete with TikTok include Meta Platforms (META), Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Pinterest (PINS), Reddit (RDDT) and Snap (SNAP).