• by Wendy Davis , September 21, 2026

A federal judge on Monday rejected a proposed $400 million settlement between the Justice Department and TikTok that would have resolved charges that TikTok violated the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting personal information from users younger than 13.

The deal would have vacated a 2019 settlement between TikTok and the Federal Trade Commission over the charge that the app violated the same law, which prohibits operators of websites and apps from knowingly collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent.

U.S. District Court Judge George Wu in the Central District of California said in a "tentative" ruling, issued Friday and formally adopted Monday, that the government failed to prove the 2019 order should be set aside.

That order required TikTok to pay $5 million and comply with numerous conditions going forward.

When the Justice Department sought to vacate the 2019 order, the administration argued that it was "no longer necessary to serve the public interest."

The government elaborated that the 2019 settlement grew out of practices by TikTok's predecessor company Musical.ly, as opposed to "the TikTok platform as it exists and operates today."

Earlier this year, ByteDance sold TikTok's U.S. operations to a joint venture of investors including Oracle, which is run by President Donald Trump ally Larry Ellison.

Wu rejected that rationale, ruling that the change in ownership did not justify vacating the prior order.

"While there have been significant legal developments concerning TikTok in the years since the Consent Order was issued, nothing has changed regarding defendants’ legal obligations under COPPA," he wrote, using an acronym for the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

"There is nothing inherent in the ownership change that renders the aims of the Consent Order accomplished or its enforcement no longer necessary," he added.

He allowed the Justice Department to amend its request for settlement approval and refile it.

The deal that Wu rejected would have resolved an August 2024 complaint alleging that the app -- then owned by the Chinese company ByteDance -- allowed children 12 and under to bypass a "Kids Mode" setting that would have restricted data collection. 

When the Justice Department sought to settle the case, it said the claims that would be resolved were "allegations only" and that there had not been a determination of liability.