The High Court has granted social media giant TikTok permission to pursue a legal challenge against what it argues is the “penal” €530 million fine imposed upon it by the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) over the alleged transfer of site-users’ personal data to China.
The fine was imposed on the video-sharing site last April, for what the DPC described as an infringement on data protection regarding its transfers of European users’ data to The People’s Republic of China via remote access to data stored in the US and Singapore by personnel based in China.
In addition to the €530 million fine, the April 30th censure also included an order suspending TikTok’s transfer of data to China if its processing was not brought into compliance with European directives on transparency within six months.
On Monday, Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty granted permission for TikTok to pursue a legal challenge against the DPC decisions and put a stay on them pending the outcome of the legal review.
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The High Court action is being taken by TikTok Technology Limited, with an address at The Sorting Office, Ropemaker Place, Dublin 2, and by TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited, Kaleidoscope, Lindsey Street, London, UK, against the DPC, Ireland and the Attorney General.
TikTok Ireland is a private company limited by shares incorporated in the Republic of Ireland and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TikTok UK.
Both TikTok entities seek the quashing of the decision of the DPC of April 30th, 2025.
Lawyers for the applicants appeared in the High Court on Tuesday on an ex parte basis, where only one side is represented. They submitted that the sections of the Data Protection Act under which the DPC made their decision are invalid when viewed in relation to the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.
In papers lodged to the High Court, TikTok says that the Ireland and UK arms are “joint controllers” for the processing of personal data of users based in Europe but add that TikTok UK is “the entity that will ultimately bear the cost of the administration fines imposed in the decision”.
Ireland and the Attorney General are joined as respondents to the proceedings.
TikTok submits that the imposition of “administrative” fines of €485 million and €45 million “constitutes the imposition of a sanction that in its nature and severity is properly characterised as ‘criminal’ or penal”.
TikTok contends that “even if the imposition of the fine did not constitute a sanction of a criminal nature, the DPC was nonetheless not exercising merely limited functions and powers of a judicial nature within the meaning of Article 37.1 of the Constitution”.
Article 37.1 aims to validate the delegation of certain judicial powers to administrative bodies without infringing on the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in criminal matters.
TikTok claims that the fines “cannot be said to be of a limited nature”.
TikTok submits that the ECHR provides that “in the determination of civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charges, an individual is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law”.
The applicants further claim that the fine “constitutes an interference with the applicants’ right to private property protected under Article 40.3 or 43, or both, of the Constitution”.
“The decision to impose a fine, the amount of the fine and the absence of a full right of appeal constitutes an unjust, unjustified and disproportionate interference with the applicants’ right to private property,” TikTok claims.
Ms Justice Gearty granted leave for the judicial review and adjourned the matter to October.
