TikTok faces €1.2bn EU fine over teen privacy failures

The European Commission issued a preliminary finding on Friday (24 July) accusing TikTok of failing to protect the privacy of teenage users, marking a critical enforcement test for the bloc’s digital regulation framework.

Regulators argue the platform’s architecture violates the Digital Services Act (DSA) by exposing minors to unnecessary risks. While users aged 13 to 15 are placed in private accounts by default, the system still displays their profile pictures to the broader internet. For older teenagers between 15 and 18, the option to switch to a public account makes their content visible globally, even to individuals who do not hold a TikTok account.

Authorities also targeted the algorithmic systems that drive the app's growth. Features that actively promote and recommend adolescent accounts to other users were highlighted as a fundamental design flaw. “all these are loopholes in the security web that should really be designed around the accounts of teens,” a commission official told the press on Friday.

EU officials warned that these structural choices leave young users vulnerable to unsolicited content, cyberbullying, predators, and exploitation, “or even the long-lasting consequences of the fact that there may be a digital footprint of the children and minors who may not, at this point in time, fully understand their actions,” the official continued.

The preliminary ruling gives TikTok the right to review the commission’s evidence and mount a formal defence. If the findings are ultimately confirmed, the financial stakes for the company are severe. The commission can issue a penalty of up to six percent of the provider's global annual turnover. Based on TikTok’s 2024 revenue, this maximum fine would reach €1.2bn.

For investors and the wider tech sector, this case underscores the heavy cost of non-compliance with European rules. The DSA requires large platforms to bake safety into their system design rather than treating it as an afterthought. A confirmed breach would likely force TikTok to overhaul the recommendation engine central to its business model, establishing a strict precedent for how social media companies must manage teenage users across the continent.