TikTok, ByteDance, and affiliated companies have agreed to pay $400 million to settle a US Justice Department lawsuit alleging violations of federal children’s privacy law.
The agreement resolves litigation brought in 2024 over TikTok’s handling of data belonging to users under 13.
Under the announced settlement, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and another $100 million after a court order vacates an earlier consent decree imposed on Musical.ly, TikTok’s predecessor. The Justice Department described the deal as one of the largest recoveries obtained in a case involving the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Central District of California after a referral from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). DOJ’s Civil Division, through its Enforcement and Affirmative Litigation Branch, handled the case.
TikTok is one of the world’s largest short-form video platforms and is owned by China-founded technology company ByteDance. The service has a particularly large audience among teenagers and younger users, making its collection and handling of minors’ data a longstanding focus for US privacy regulators.
In the 2024 complaint, the US government alleged that TikTok knowingly allowed children under 13 to create and use standard TikTok accounts and collected personal information from those users without obtaining verifiable parental consent, as required by COPPA. Regulators also accused the company of retaining children’s data and, in some cases, failing to properly honor parents’ requests to delete information associated with their children.
The case followed earlier enforcement involving Musical.ly. In 2019, the FTC reached a $5.7 million settlement with the company over allegations that it illegally collected information from children, resulting in a court order imposing requirements on how it treats users under 13.
According to the DOJ, TikTok has made substantial changes since the 2024 lawsuit was filed, including modifications to its ownership and management structure, compliance operations, privacy practices, age-related controls, safeguards for younger users, and parental oversight tools. The department said those improvements helped advance the objectives behind the litigation and were considered in settling.
Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said the agreement reinforces companies’ obligations when handling children’s personal information. Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said the recovery reflects DOJ’s enforcement of protections mandated by Congress.
The settlement resolves the government’s allegations without a determination that TikTok or ByteDance is liable for the alleged violations.
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