They were hit with the fine over the transfer of the personal data of European users to China.
TikTok has said that it plans to appeal the €530 million fine that it was hit with by the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC).
The fine was over the transfer of European users’ personal data being transferred to China.
Throughout the DPC’s investigation, the watchdog was told by TikTok that it did not store European user data on servers located in China, according to RTÉ.
Last month, the DPC were informed of an issue that the social media app had discovered in February of 2025, in which some European user data was being stored on servers in China.
The DPC said: “TikTok informed the DPC that this discovery meant that TikTok had provided inaccurate information to the inquiry.”
TikTok’s Head of Public Policy & Government Relations in Europe, Christine Grahn, has said that the company disagrees with the DPC and they intend to appeal “in full”.
The investigation into TikTok was launched in September 2021 as an examination into the lawfulness of the platform’s transfers of personal data of users in the European Economic Area (EEA) to China.
On top of the €530 million fine, the DPC have ordered TikTok to bring its data processing into compliance within 6 months.
DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said: “As a result of TikTok’s failure to undertake the necessary assessments, TikTok did not address potential access by Chinese authorities to EEA personal data under Chinese anti-terrorism, counter-espionage and other laws identified by TikTok as materially diverging from EU standards.
“The DPC is taking recent developments regarding the storage of EEA user data on servers in China very seriously.
“Whilst TikTok has informed the DPC that the data has now been deleted, we are considering what further regulatory action may be warranted, in consultation with our peer EU Data Protection Authorities.”
TikTok has rejected the decision, with Grahn saying: “The DPC itself recorded in its report what TikTok has consistently said: it has never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them.”
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