AliExpress, Temu and WeChat are also among the apps accused of transferring data without users’ consent.
The Austrian advocacy group (None Of Your Business), known for having already filed legal actions against Apple, Alphabet and Meta, which resulted in refunds worth billions of euros, now presents complaint against TikTok, Shein, Xiaomi and three other Chinese companies, says .
Noyb is trying to obtain fines that can reach 4% of companies’ global revenue Chinese women he accuses, who will have illegally sent user data from the European Union to China. The group has already filed six complaints in four different European countries in total.
Among the companies targeted are the online store AliExpressthe online retailer Sheina rede social TikTok and the cell phone manufacturer Xiaomi, that Noyb guarantees that they accept sending personal data of Europeans to China, while the online store Ago and messaging application WeChat transfer data to “third countries”, assures the group.
“Given that China is an authoritarian surveillance state, it is clear that China does not offer the same level of protection of data than the EU,” said Kleanthi Sardeli, the group’s lawyer.
At the moment, the European Commission is already carrying out formal proceedings against TikTok on suspicion of breach of the obligation to assess and mitigate systemic risks linked to the integrity of elections, and especially with regard to the Romanian presidential elections.
Also in the US, TikTok will launch its application for American users from Sunday, after the US government itself considered that the ByteDance group’s social network constitutes a risk to national security.
This week, there was also talk about the millionaire who owns the social network Elon Musk be considering purchasing the application, a fact that ByteDance itself denied.
