Short-form video platform TikTok, which has been brought to trial in the United States on charges of violating the children's Personal Information Protection Act, agreed to pay $400 million (about 555 billion won).
According to Reuters and others on the 21st (local time), the U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement with TikTok and its parent company ByteDance Ltd. and other affiliates to pay this amount in a lawsuit related to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Under the settlement, TikTok agreed to immediately pay $300 million to the U.S. government. The remaining $100 million will be paid if the existing consent decree issued to TikTok's predecessor "Musical.ly" is vacated.
The U.S. Department of Justice said it is the largest settlement amount ever reached in a COPPA case. Vice Minister Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said, "This settlement is a big win for American children and parents," adding, "It secures substantial monetary relief while strengthening the protections that families expect and are entitled to."
Earlier, in 2024 under the Joe Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit alleging that TikTok knew that children under 13 were opening standard adult accounts and let it continue, and that it collected and stored their personal information, including email addresses, without parental consent.