TikTok has agreed to pay $400 million to the United States to settle a lawsuit that alleged the company and its parent, ByteDance, violated children's privacy by collecting extensive data from millions of users under the age of 13. The settlement is one of the largest ever reached over such issues.
The lawsuit, filed in 2024 under the Biden administration, cited violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate stated that "children and parents are better protected today than they were when this case began."
Under the terms of the agreement, TikTok and ByteDance will pay $300 million immediately to the Department of Justice. An additional $100 million will be paid when the government vacates a 2019 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission.
This settlement follows similar actions against other major tech companies for COPPA violations. Google paid $170 million in 2019, and Epic Games paid $275 million in 2022.
While the lawsuit predates the 2024 split of TikTok's U.S. operations from its China-based parent company, the settlement pertains only to TikTok's operations in China. The predecessor to ByteDance, Musical.ly, had previously paid a $5.7 million fine for COPPA violations and was required to obtain parental consent for users under 13.
When the lawsuit was initially filed, U.S. attorneys noted that TikTok, which was described as being "directed to children," had more than 170 million teenage users. They contended that the platform did not effectively verify the age of its users or obtain parental consent for those underage.
Previous actions by the U.S. government have included calls for a ban or divestiture of TikTok's U.S. operations. In 2024, then-President Biden pushed for such measures, a stance later supported by President Donald Trump, which ultimately led to the divestiture of the app's U.S. operations last year. Currently, TikTok's U.S. operations are reportedly 81% owned by a consortium of investors, with ByteDance retaining a 19% stake.