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TikTok Seeks to Avoid EU Clutches Amid Fight Over Digital Law

2023-12-01 21:55
TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. urged European Union judges to suspend a decision by regulators to force the video-sharing
TikTok Seeks to Avoid EU Clutches Amid Fight Over Digital Law

TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. urged European Union judges to suspend a decision by regulators to force the video-sharing social-media platform to comply with the bloc’s flagship digital antitrust rules.

The Chinese-owned firm made the request for so-called interim measures alongside last month’s appeal against moves to put TiKTok within the scope of the Digital Markets Act. If granted, this would halt the targeting of TiKTok until the outcome of the appeal.

A spokesman for TikTok declined to comment about the filing on the EU court’s website. The European Commission didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The DMA — which take full effect in March — will impose a rigid regime on firms whose practices have previously resulted in billions of euros in fines and tax orders from the EU watchdog. It will be illegal for certain platforms to favor their own services over those of rivals. They’ll be barred from combining personal data across their different services, prohibited from using data they collect from third-party merchants to compete against them, and will have to allow users to download apps from rival platforms.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google Search, Apple Inc.’s Safari and Amazon.com Inc.’s Marketplace are among the 22 platforms the EU said should be covered by the DMA. Apple and Meta Platforms Inc. last month also appealed the EU’s decision, but didn’t seek interim measures.