Irish regulator reconsidering TikTok data-transfer ban after court ruling

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, June 30 (Reuters) - Ireland's data watchdog will decide "in the coming period" whether to pursue fresh sanctions against TikTok after a court told it to reconsider an order that the short-video platform suspend data transfers from the European Union to China.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC), TikTok's lead EU privacy regulator, fined the Chinese tech giant €530 million a year ago and ordered it to suspend data transfers to China if its processing is not brought into compliance within six months.

The Irish High Court paused the suspension order shortly afterwards pending an appeal by TikTok and while the court this month upheld the DPC's finding that TikTok breached EU privacy rules, it told the regulator to reconsider the corrective measures imposed alongside the fine.

Des Hogan, chair of the DPC, said the court had asked it to reassess the suspension order because, in its view, the regulator had not clearly set out how it considered some of TikTok's submissions.

"We're in the process of reading the judgment, understanding where the judge thought that we should have considered those submissions in terms of process. That will now happen over the coming period," Hogan told Reuters on Tuesday after the regulator published its annual report.

Hogan said the DPC would then have a choice as to whether to impose sanctions and that if it did, the process would begin afresh, with TikTok having the right to appeal any new decision.

In its May 2025 decision, the DPC found that TikTok had failed to show that any data accessed remotely by personnel based in China was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that provided within the EU.

As a result of those shortcomings, TikTok had not addressed potential access by Chinese authorities, the DPC said.

TikTok said in response that it had never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them.

A separate judgment regarding TikTok's appeal against the fine was shared with both sides on Tuesday to consider, the DPC said. A spokesperson for the court said the judgment will be published at a later date.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, Editing by Louise Heavens)