After Meta, TikTok Now Faces One of EU’s Largest GDPR Fines

While TikTok has so far managed to ride out the storm over its future in the U.S. it is running into stiffer headwinds in the European Union. The Irish Data Protection Commission, TikTok’s primarily regulator in Europe, hit the app-maker with a fine of €530 million ($600 million) on Friday for violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by improperly transferring users’ personal data to China. TikTok’s European headquarters is in Ireland, but its parent company, ByteDance, is based in China.

According to the Commission, TikTok failed to demonstrate that any personal data on the app’s 175 million European users would adequately be protected from government access under Chinese laws covering things like espionage and cybersecurity, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The fine is one of the largest yet imposed under the GDPR, and the Commission said TikTok could be ordered to stop all data transfers to China if it does not take steps to rectify the problem within six months, according to a report in the New York Times. The Irish watchdog added that it is discussing the matter with its EU counterparts to consider whether further action should be taken.

The EU previously fined Meta Platforms $1.3 billion under the law for transferring data to the U.S. where it could be subject to U.S. surveillance, the Journal noted.

Related: On the Stand For Third Day, Zuckerberg Calls TikTok ‘Highest Competition Threat’ to Meta

In a statement, TikTok said it has “never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them,” and vowed to appeal the ruling. “This ruling risks setting a precedent with far-reaching consequences for companies and entire industries across Europe that operate on a global scale,” the statement added.

According to the Commission, however, TikTok last month admitted storing some European data in China after having previously denied doing so.

TikTok has officially been banned from the U.S. over its China ties after failing to find a U.S. buyer by the January 19^th set by Congress in a law passed last year. President Trump has twice extended that deadline however, most recently on April 4, albeit without explicit authorization by either Congress of the courts. The Supreme Court upheld the law banning the app last year.

According to reports last month, the Trump administration was close to arranging a deal that would have allowed TikTok to continue to operate in the U.S., but the deal collapsed after the president imposed steep tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S. It’s unclear whether a new deal will be completed by the end of the current 75-day extension or whether the administration would try to again extend the deadline.

TikTok has approximately 136 million users in the U.S. and is the fourth most used social media app.