TikToku and 5 Chinese companies hit by EU privacy complaints

Noyb is known for presenting complaints against American companies such as Apple, Alphabet and Meta, which has led to several investigations and billions of dollars in fines.

Vienna-based Noyb ( second of Your Business) said it is their first complaint against Chinese firms.

Noyb has filed six complaints in four European countries for suspending data transfers to China and is demanding fines that could reach up to 4% of a firm's global income.

Noyb said Alibaba's electronic trade site, AliExpress, retail vendor Shane, TikTok and the Xiaomi telephone manufacturer agree they have sent personal data to Europeans in China, while retail vendor Temu and Tencent's WeChat mail app transfer data to China's possibly undiscovered <x0).

According to the European Union's General Data Protection Rule privacy regime (GDPR), data transfers outside the EU are allowed only if the destination country does not undermine data protection.

The “given that China is an authoritarian supervisory state, it is clear that China does not offer the same level of data protection as the EU”, said Kleanthi Sardeli, a lawyer for protecting data in Noyb. “Transferferring personal data of Europeans is clearly illegal and must be shut down immediately.

Chinese companies, particularly TikTok owned by ByteDance, have faced regulators in different countries. TikTok is planning to close his app for American users from Sunday, when a federal ban on social media applications will come into effect, Reuters reports.

The European Commission is also investigating TikToku on his alleged failure to limit election intervention, particularly in the Romanian presidential election in November.