TikTok, the company behind the namesake popular short-form video app, has agreed to pay $400 million to settle a U.S. government lawsuit alleging it violated the country’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
The Justice Department announced the settlement with TikTok and China-based ByteDance on Friday. Under the terms of the agreement, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately to the U.S. government and an additional $100 million “upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered against TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly,” the DOJ said.
The $400 million settlement represents one of the largest recoveries ever obtained in a case involving COPPA, a law that requires websites and online services aimed at kids to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13.
The lawsuit was filed during the Biden administration in August 2024, when the DOJ, together with the FTC, sued TikTok and ByteDance in California federal court, alleging that TikTok “knowingly permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts and to create, view and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform.” The DOJ alleged at the time that TikTok collected and retained a “wide variety of personal information from these children without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents.”
