TikTok Agrees to $400 Million Child Privacy Settlement With US
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 21
TikTok Agrees to $400 Million Child Privacy Settlement With US
3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 21
Summary
$400 million will end a Justice Department lawsuit accusing TikTok and ByteDance of illegally collecting data on millions of users under 13 without parental consent.
$300 million is due immediately, with another $100 million payable once the government vacates a 2019 FTC consent decree tied to Musical.ly's earlier COPPA case.
The settlement ranks among the largest US child-privacy penalties, exceeding YouTube's $170 million 2019 payment and Epic Games' $275 million 2022 penalty.
The case began in 2024 before TikTok's US divestment; the company now says its US operations are 81% owned by outside investors, with ByteDance holding 19%.
The deal closes one major US pressure point on TikTok, while Meta still faces a separate COPPA trial brought by 29 states over alleged child-targeting practices.