Commission prevails over TikTok. Lite Rewards program withdrawn from EU territory

Brussels – It took just over three months for the European Commission to prevail over TikTok and successfully close its first investigation under Digital Services Act rules. Today (Aug. 5), the EU executive made commitments by TikTok to permanently withdraw its Lite Rewards program from the entire EU binding as a follow-up to the formal procedure that began on Apr. 22 over concerns about the physical and mental health of online users.

The Chinese platform – a gatekeeper according to the EU Digital Services Act – committed to “definitely withdraw the TikTok Lite Rewards program from the EU” and also to “not launch any other program that would circumvent the withdrawal,” the EU Commission said. “The available brain time of young Europeans is not a currency for social media — and it never will be,”  Internal Market Thierry Breton added. Today’s decision makes these commitments legally binding, meaning that any violation would immediately amount to a breach of the Digital Services Act, resulting in fines (of up to 6 percent of global revenues).

TikTok Lite Rewards is a new separate version of the TikTok Lite app, launched in April in Spain and France. The program allows users to earn points by performing certain activities on TikTok Lite, such as viewing videos, putting ‘likes’ to content, following content creators, or inviting friends to join TikTok. The Commission was concerned that the launch of the rewards program took place without a “prior and diligent” risk assessment, particularly regarding the addictive effect caused by the rewards and the adverse effects on physical and mental health, especially of minors. According to the DSA legislation, large online platforms must conduct risk assessment exercises and submit a report to the European Commission services before launching any new functionality that may have a critical impact on systemic risks, a provision that TikTok did not comply with in this case.