TikTok agrees to pay $400M settlement to DOJ over alleged children’s privacy law violations

TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, have agreed to pay $400 million to settle allegations that the platform violated a federal law protecting children’s online privacy, the Department of Justice said Friday.

Under the settlement, TikTok will pay $300 million upfront, followed by another $100 million after a court dismisses an earlier consent decree involving TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly, according to the DOJ.

The Justice Department sued TikTok and ByteDance in 2024, alleging that the video-sharing platform violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. The law prohibits online services from collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent.