ICO supports tribunal ruling upholding TikTok fine

The Information Commissioner’s Office has expressed satisfaction following a decision for an Upper Tribunal to dismiss TikTok’s appeal against its substantial penalty. In 2023, the regulator imposed a financial sanction of £12.7m on the video sharing platform after investigations revealed breaches of UK data law involving the processing of information belonging to children under thirteen years old. The company had sought to overturn this ruling by arguing that its operations served special purposes such as journalistic or academic activities.

Such an argument would have required additional statutory preconditions before enforcement action could proceed, effectively nullifying the original penalty. However, judges determined that merely hosting user-generated content containing value in these areas did not satisfy the necessary legal threshold for special purpose processing under the Data Protection Act.

Binnie Goh, general counsel at the regulator, stated that dismissing the appeal and remitting the case to the First-tier Tribunal was a positive development. She noted that the reasoning provided by the Upper Tribunal establishes an important precedent regarding how special purposes provisions apply within data protection legislation.

While this specific instance concerns TikTok, the approach taken is likely relevant for other online platforms facing similar circumstances involving children’s data. The ICO confirmed it will continue to defend its original decision before the First-tier Tribunal where substantive issues must be determined.
The regulator remains committed to ensuring organisations providing services to minors comply with their obligations under data protection law and will pursue further determination of the case at the lower tribunal level.