TikTok has ended its legal challenge against a £12.7 million UK privacy fine, making the penalty final more than three years after regulators concluded that the platform failed to adequately protect children’s personal information.
The Information Commissioner’s Office imposed the fine in 2023 following an investigation into TikTok’s practices between May 2018 and July 2020. The regulator found several breaches of UK data protection law, including the unlawful processing of children’s information and inadequate measures for preventing underage users from accessing the platform.
TikTok’s own rules require users to be at least 13 years old. However, the ICO estimated that as many as 1.75 million children under 13 in the UK used TikTok during 2020, despite the age restriction.
Regulators concluded that TikTok did not conduct sufficient checks to identify and remove those users. The company also failed to obtain parental consent in circumstances where it should have been aware that children below the minimum age were using its service.
Privacy information provided to users was another part of the case. According to the ICO, TikTok did not clearly explain how personal information was collected, used and shared, making it particularly difficult for younger users to understand what was happening to their data.
TikTok initially challenged the penalty, but an important part of its legal argument suffered a setback in August. The UK’s Upper Tribunal rejected the company’s position that the relevant processing could qualify under legal provisions covering data processed for artistic purposes.
The company has now withdrawn its remaining appeal against the fine and agreed to pay the £12.7 million penalty. TikTok continues to disagree with the regulator’s original decision and has emphasized that the case concerns practices from several years ago, saying it has since introduced numerous youth safety measures and policies.
The end of the financial dispute does not close the UK’s scrutiny of TikTok’s handling of children’s information. A separate investigation is examining how the platform processes personal data belonging to users aged between 13 and 17 through its recommendation systems.
That investigation began in February 2025 amid concerns about the way personalized algorithms can expose young users to inappropriate or harmful material. Recommendation systems analyze user activity to determine which videos and other content are most likely to keep an individual engaged.
TikTok had challenged an ICO information notice requiring it to provide documents and details about this processing. That appeal prevented the regulator from moving forward with the investigation, but TikTok has now withdrawn that legal challenge as well.
The ICO can therefore resume examining how TikTok profiles teenage users and uses their personal information to determine what appears in their feeds. The regulator has not concluded that TikTok violated the law in this separate investigation, and its outcome remains open.
While the £12.7 million dispute is now finished, TikTok’s decision to abandon both appeals leaves the company facing renewed regulatory examination of how its