• by Colin Kirkland , April 3, 2025

Following major user privacy concerns in the U.S., TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance is expected to face more than €500 million in fines for illegally shipping European users’ data to China. 

According to a report from Bloomberg, the social-media company will be fined by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (Irish DPC) by the end of the month. 

The fine -- equivalent to about $553 million -- stems from an investigation that found a breach of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, as user data has allegedly been sent to China to be accessed by engineers. 

The expected decision -- which TikTok will be able to appeal in Irish courts -- could mark one of the largest fines handed down by the Irish DPC, following fines of €746 million against Amazon in 2021, and €1.2 billion against Meta in 2023.

TikTok’s fine and the timing of the decision are not yet final and could still change, according to the anonymous sources who spoke with Bloomberg. 

The Irish DPC’s suggested allegations against TikTok and its owner ByteDance are similar to privacy concerns that pushed U.S. lawmakers to pass a bill ordering the social media company to sell to an American buyer, or be banned for the region’s 170 million users. 

With the current deadline for a selloff set for Saturday, potential buyers are multiplying. Most recently, Amazon and a startup run by the founder of OnlyFans submitted plans to the White House to acquire TikTok. 

The mobile technology company AppLovin also put a bid in to buy the platform this week, following previous offers and plans from Oracle, Perplexity AI and more. 

Despite lawmakers urging President Trump to extend the sell-off deadline by an additional six months, continuing to keep TikTok on the app store until October 16, Trump continues to issue statements about completing a deal by April 5. 

These new allegations against ByteDance may complicate a deal in the U.S., placing more pressure on the need for substantial separation from ByteDance’s influence over the powerful algorithm and user data.

User protections are a key area of focus moving forward with the deal, with user data security essential to addressing concerns included in the recently passed Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

The law, which was passed in January, demands that foreign-owned entities do not own more than 20% of the app, and do not possess direction or control over the platform.

In addition, the law states that foreign-owned entities do not have an “operational relationship” with regard to its content recommendation algorithms or data sharing.