TikTok clobbered as Brussels flexes its muscles again

TikTok has once again found itself on the wrong side of EU regulators after the European Commission issued preliminary findings that the company is in breach of the Digital Services Act for failing to provide adequate transparency over online advertising.

The move, which comes just a fortnight after the Chinese video sharing platform was fined €530m (£452m) fine for yet another breach of GDPR, follows an investigation that opened in February 2024.

This has concluded that the company has not maintained a proper advertising repository which allows proper scrutiny of who pays for advertising and how users are targeted.

EC executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy Henna Virkkunen said: “Transparency in online advertising – who pays and how audiences are targeted – is essential to safeguarding the public interest.

“Whether we are defending the integrity of our democratic elections, protecting public health, or protecting consumers from scam ads, citizens have a right to know who is behind the messages they see.”

The Commission’s preliminary findings are based on an in-depth investigation that included, among others, the analysis of internal company documents, testing TikTok’s tools, and interviews with experts in the field.

TikTok now has the possibility to exercise its rights of defence by examining the documents in the Commission’s investigation file and by replying in writing to the Commission’s preliminary findings. In parallel, the European Board for Digital Services will be consulted.

If the Commission’s preliminary views were to be ultimately confirmed, the Commission may issue a non-compliance decision, which may trigger a fine of up to 6% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the provider as well as an enhanced supervision period to ensure compliance with the measures the provider intends to take to remedy the breach.

The Commission can also impose periodic penalty payments to compel a platform to comply.

A TikTok spokesperson said: “While we support the goals of the regulation and continue to improve our ad transparency tools, we disagree with some of the commission’s interpretations and note that guidance is being delivered via preliminary findings rather than clear, public guidelines.”

TikTok’s most recent fine pushes its total penalties under GDPR to close to €1bn (£850m) in Europe alone.

The Irish DPC, which regulates TikTok across the European Economic Area (EEA), had already whacked TikTok with a €345m (£269m) penalty over the illegal processing of youngsters’ personal data in September 2023. This followed a £12.7m fine issued by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office in April of the same year.