EU fines TikTok €530 million for China data transfer

TikTok has been in the crosshairs of Western government for years over fears of China using personal data for espionage or propaganda

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TikTok – a division of Chinese tech giant ByteDance – has its European headquarters in Ireland. Photo: dpa

Published: 7:49pm, 2 May 2025

TikTok was hit with a massive EU fine of €530 million (US$600 million) on Friday, accused of sending personal data of Europeans to China and failing to guarantee it was shielded from access by Chinese authorities.

The Chinese-owned social media giant, which is also in the crosshairs of the United States, acknowledged during a probe that it has hosted European data in China, contrary to a previous denial, according go Ireland’s data protection watchdog.

One of the largest fines ever imposed by the authority followed a probe into the lawfulness of data transfers by TikTok.

In 2023 Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined TikTok – which has 1.5 billion users worldwide – €345 million for breaches of European rules on processing child data.

As TikTok – a division of Chinese tech giant ByteDance – has its European headquarters in Ireland, the Irish authority is the lead regulator in Europe for the social platform, as well as others like Google, Meta and X.

“TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of (European) users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,” said DPC deputy commissioner Graham Doyle.