Chinese company Tiktok disagrees with the European Commission’s interpretations on the violation of the EU digital services law in relation to transparency in advertising. The commission accuses Tiktok not to provide necessary information about the content of ads, target users and payers.
“Although we support the goals of regulation and continue to improve our advertising transparency tools, we disagree with some of the European Commission’s interpretations and emphasize that the guidelines are being transmitted through preliminary conclusions rather than public and clear guidelines,” said a Tiktok spokesman on Thursday.
“We are analyzing the preliminary conclusions of regarding our ad file and We are still committed to fulfilling our obligations under the Digital Services Law“He added, stiving that Tiktok” will continue to collaborate with the European Commission, as it has done throughout this process. “
“It does not comply with the obligation of the Digital Services Law,” says European Commission
A European Commission accused the Chinese social network Tiktok to violate the digital services law of for not being transparent in advertisingthreatening with a fine of up to 6% of the annual turnover.
“Today, the commission informed Tiktok of his preliminary opinion that the company does not comply with the obligation of the digital services law to publish an ad repository “ which is “fundamental for investigators and civil society to detect fraudulent ads, hybrid threat campaigns, as well as coordinated information operations and fake ads, namely in the context of the elections,” the institution announces in a press release.
In these preliminary conclusions, Brussels argues that “Tiktok does not provide the necessary information about the ad content, the users targeted by ads and who paid the ads” And besides, it does not allow your users to do “exhaustive ad research”.
Fine can reach up to 6% of the provider’s annual global business volume
Fine can reach up to 6% of the provider’s annual global business volume
The European Commission’s preliminary conclusions are based on a thorough investigation that included The analysis of company internal documents, Tiktok tools and expert interviews.
The Chinese company may now contest, but if the preliminary opinion of the institution is confirmed, The community executive can make a decision of non -compliance, implying a fine up to 6% of the total annual turnover of the provider’s world levelas well as a period of reinforced supervision.
In February last year, Brussels began a formal process to assess whether Tiktok violated the Digital Services Law regarding the transparency of advertising And as early as December 2024, he opened another one on elections and civic discourse. The latter still goes on.
Rules for digital platforms
The European Union (EU) has become, since last August and after a period of adaptation, The world’s first jurisdiction with rules for digital platformswhich are now required to remove illegal and harmful content.
Companies that do not meet can have fines proportional to their size, and the largest companies can be sanctioned up to 6% of their global turnover.
