European consumer body BEUC has filed a complaint with the European Commission and the continent’s network of consumer protection authorities against the increasingly popular Chinese video-sharing app TikTok. The complaint is mainly based on multiple alleged breaches of the EU consumer laws and for failing to protect children from hidden advertising and inappropriate content. The app owned by China's ByteDance has been facing rising criticism in recent months regarding its privacy and safety policies as well as its attention to the protection of minors after a series of incidents.
In a statement, BEUC said the app's terms of service are “unclear, ambiguous and favour TikTok to the detriment of its users”, while its copyright terms “give TikTok an irrevocable right to use, distribute and reproduce the videos published by users, without remuneration”. The app's virtual item policy where users can purchase coins to use for virtual gifts for TikTok celebrities whose performance they like also “contains unfair terms and misleading practices,” said the consumer organisation.
BEUC likewise complained about TikTok’s “failure to protect children and teenagers from hidden advertising and potentially harmful content on its platform,” accusing the company of “potentially failing to conduct due diligence” when it comes to protecting children from inappropriate content such as videos showing suggestive content which “are just a few scrolls away”. TikTok’s practices for the processing of users' personal data are also misleading, it added.
The complaint has been joined by 17 national consumer organisations from 15 countries, including Spain’s OCU, which has taken the case before the Spanish Agency for Data Protection (AEPD), the country’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs and communications and markets regulator CNMC.
