TikTok was fined €530 million ($600 million) by Ireland’s privacy watchdog earlier this month for violating European data protection laws by transferring users’ personal information to China.
The Irish Data Protection Commission, which leads TikTok oversight in Europe, found the social media platform failed to ensure adequate protection for EU users’ data accessed by staff in China.
“TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of (European) users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,” said Graham Doyle, deputy commissioner at the DPC.
Regulators ordered TikTok to bring its data processing into compliance within six months or face suspension of transfers to China.
The investigation revealed TikTok had stored “limited” European user data on Chinese servers despite previous denials. The company acknowledged this discovery in February after repeatedly claiming no such storage occurred.
TikTok, which has about 175 million European users, plans to appeal the decision. The company argues regulators ignored Project Clover, its €12 billion data security initiative that includes a data center in Finland.
“This ruling risks setting a precedent with far-reaching consequences for companies and entire industries across Europe that operate on a global scale,” TikTok said in a statement.
The penalty is the second largest ever imposed under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. In 2023, the Irish authority already fined TikTok €345 million for mishandling children’s data.
TikTok, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, faces similar scrutiny in the United States — at least before President Donald Trump returned to the White House. Concerns persist about Chinese authorities potentially accessing user data under national security laws requiring companies to cooperate with government requests.
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