By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, on Sunday have agreed to pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department.
The government accused the platform of violating a federal law that protects children’s online privacy. The Justice Department announced the deal on Friday, August 21, 2026.
Under the deal, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and $100 million once an older consent decree is formally vacated. That earlier order dates back to 2019, when the app was fined for similar violations.
The case dates back to 2024, when the Biden administration’s Justice Department sued TikTok and ByteDance.
The complaint accused the company of collecting and retaining personal information about millions of children under the age of 13.
According to the government, TikTok knowingly let kids create accounts, make videos, and interact with adults on the platform.
The lawsuit also claimed TikTok ignored parents. The company allegedly didn’t delete children’s accounts even after parents asked. That is a direct violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA.
The law requires apps aimed at children to get parental consent before gathering personal data from anyone under 13.
This isn’t TikTok’s first run-in with COPPA. Back in 2019, when the app was still known as Musical.ly, the company agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle similar allegations. At the time, regulators called it the largest civil penalty the FTC had ever collected in a children’s privacy case.
The 2019 deal came with a consent decree. It required TikTok to follow specific rules going forward.
The new lawsuit alleged the company broke that promise too.
The $400 million settlement isn’t a single lump sum.
TikTok will pay $300 million right away. The remaining $100 million comes due once a court enters an order vacating the older consent decree against Musical.ly.
The officials called the outcome a win for families. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. said the settlement marks a major victory for American children and parents.
TikTok clears the allegations without admitting fault as part of the deal.
The company avoids litigation and does not concede that it broke the law.
The US Justice Department noted that TikTok has gone through major changes in ownership, management, and privacy practices since the suit was first filed.
That’s a nod to TikTok’s turbulent few years in the U.S., including forced divestiture pressure and new corporate structuring tied to national security concerns, media reports added.
