TikTok will pay $400 million to settle DOJ child privacy lawsuit

The US Department of Justice announced on Friday that TikTok will pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit filed in 2024 over allegedly violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). In the lawsuit, the DOJ alleged that TikTok collected data from children without notifying parents or obtaining consent and did not delete the accounts when parents requested.

TikTok is set to pay $300 million right away and will pay a further $100 million “upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered against TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly,” the DOJ says in a press release. The settlement is “one of the largest recoveries ever obtained in a COPPA case.”

The DOJ also notes that TikTok has “undergone significant changes to its ownership, management, compliance functions, and privacy practices” since the lawsuit was filed and that TikTok has “implemented extensive measures designed to strengthen safeguards for younger users, improve age-related controls, and enhance parental oversight.”

TikTok didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. In January, the deal to put TikTok under a new joint ownership structure in the US finally happened.