TikTok Drops Appeal, Will Pay £12.7m UK Fine Over Under-13 Users

TikTok will pay a £12.7 million fine to the UK's data watchdog after dropping its appeal against a ruling that it did not do enough to keep children under 13 off the platform.

The video app was punished by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in 2023. The regulator found TikTok had run inadequate checks on who was using the platform and had failed to remove underage users, in breach of UK data protection law.

The decision to abandon the appeal closes a legal challenge that had run since the fine was first imposed. TikTok had contested the ICO's ruling, which centred on the platform's failure to enforce its own minimum age limit of 13. By withdrawing, the company accepts the penalty and the findings behind it.

The £12.7m fine reflects the scale of the failures the ICO identified. According to the watchdog, TikTok did not carry out sufficient verification of users' ages, allowing children below 13 to create accounts and use the service. The regulator also found the company failed to remove underage users even when it could have identified them.

For TikTok, the payment settles one of several regulatory confrontations the company has faced over its handling of children's data. The UK case dates to the ICO's 2023 enforcement action, one of the most significant penalties the regulator has handed to a social media platform.

The outcome signals that the ICO's position has held. TikTok's decision to drop the appeal rather than see it through means the 2023 ruling stands unchallenged, and the £12.7m penalty becomes final. The company will now pay the fine to the UK data protection authority.

The case centres on a straightforward obligation: platforms that set a minimum age of 13 must enforce it. The ICO found TikTok fell short on both fronts the regulator examined — checking who was using the service and removing those too young to be on it legally.

The ruling's practical effect extends beyond the fine itself. Any platform operating in the UK with a stated minimum age now faces a precedent in which the data watchdog has penalised a major operator for weak age enforcement. The ICO demonstrated it will pursue companies whose sign-up and moderation systems allow underage users through.

TikTok's withdrawal also ends a period of legal uncertainty around the penalty. The appeal had kept the 2023 decision in limbo while the company fought the findings. With the challenge dropped, the ICO's conclusions about TikTok's age-verification and user-removal failures are no longer disputed by the company.

The £12.7m payment now follows the watchdog's original 2023 enforcement, closing the matter from TikTok's side. How the company strengthens its age checks going forward will determine whether it faces fresh scrutiny from the regulator on the same grounds.