TikTok Pays $400 Million to Settle 'Children's Privacy' Lawsuit in the United States

TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, agreed to pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations of violating federal laws concerning children’s privacy, the department announced on Friday.

In a statement, the Department of Justice said that “under the settlement, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately, with an additional $100 million due upon the issuance of a court order to void a previous settlement reached with Musical.ly before it became TikTok.”

The statement added that this settlement represents “one of the largest amounts ever collected” in a case involving the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

The law prohibits websites from collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 without obtaining parental consent.