The European Commission has concluded that TikTok’s app design violates the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA). According to the EU regulator’s preliminary findings, features that drive prolonged user engagement fail to meet legal obligations and put the company at risk of fines up to 6 percent of its global annual revenue.
The Commission’s investigation identifies elements such as never-ending content feeds, automatic play of videos, push alerts, and personalised recommendation logic as core contributors to compulsive usage. Regulators argue these mechanisms prompt users to open and scroll the app repeatedly and for extended periods, a pattern particularly concerning for minors and other vulnerable groups.
European officials say the evidence shows TikTok’s design pushes users into what they term autopilot mode, where control over time spent on the platform is diminished. According to the Commission, such behavioural effects are not sufficiently addressed by the platform’s current risk assessments or mitigation measures.
Existing screen time tools and parental controls are part of TikTok’s response to concerns about excessive use, but the Commission characterises these features as inadequate. Screen-time limits can be dismissed easily by users, and parental controls are said to demand significant effort and technical skill from caregivers to be effective.
The regulatory pressure builds on a probe that began in 2024 to assess TikTok’s compliance with the DSA, a sweeping EU law that sets clear standards for managing systemic risks, protecting users, and increasing transparency on large tech platforms.
The Commission’s findings represent a stricter interpretation of “risk management” under the DSA. Officials argue that an app’s core interface and engagement-driven features must be structured to avoid promoting compulsive behaviour, especially among children. They also emphasise the responsibility of platforms to assess and mitigate harm, not merely provide optional tools that users may ignore.
TikTok strongly rejects the EU’s preliminary conclusions, calling them “categorically false and entirely meritless.” The company has stressed there is no universal approach to regulating screen time, asserting that it offers multiple user controls to manage usage. TikTok says it will challenge the Commission’s findings through available legal avenues.
If the European Commission’s conclusions are confirmed in a final non-compliance decision, TikTok could face fines of up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover. These potential penalties reflect a broader EU trend toward holding tech platforms accountable not only for user data and content moderation failures but also for design choices that affect user behaviour and wellbeing.
The move highlights regulators’ increasing focus on the impact of digital platform design on public health and safety, especially for young users. Other tech giants have previously faced fines and enforcement actions in Europe for issues ranging from data protection to transparency. This latest action underscores the EU’s willingness to enforce strict compliance standards under the DSA, with significant financial consequences for failure to act.
In summary, the EU’s preliminary ruling finds TikTok’s engagement-driven design in breach of the DSA. Unless substantial changes are made, the company faces a possible fine equal to a significant share of global revenue and a mandate to adjust core product features to reduce compulsive usage risks.
