On 2 May 2025, the European Union imposed a record fine of €530 million on TikTok for violating personal data protection laws. An investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) found that the platform failed to ensure an adequate level of protection for EU users’ data by allowing remote access to it by employees in China, Reuters reports.
The DPC also ordered TikTok to bring its data transfer policy in line with EU standards within six months or stop transferring data to China. The company said it would appeal the decision, arguing that it was using standard EU contractual clauses and had implemented new security measures, including data localisation in Europe.
This is the second significant fine for TikTok in Europe: in 2023, the company was fined €345 million for improper handling of children’s data.
