"TikTok Lite: EU closes addictive design case after TikTok commits to not bring back rewards mechanism", 5 August 2024

The European Commission has closed a Digital Services Act (DSA) investigation of a rewards feature in TikTok Lite by accepting commitments from the social media giant to permanently withdraw the feature from the EU.

The TikTok Lite “task and reward” mechanism, launched in France and Spain earlier this year, lets users earn points for doing in-app activities like watching and liking videos. These points could be exchanged for Amazon vouchers. TikTok Lite is an alternative, lower-bandwidth version of TikTok’s app that the company offers in some markets.

TikTok has also agreed not to try and circumvent its commitment, such as by launching the same feature under a different name or deploying a version that serves as an equivalent alternative, according to the Commission. Although the settlement applies to the TikTok Lite reward mechanism the EU was investigating, it’s not a blanket ban on TikTok launching any rewards features in the future.

When the EU opened a probe of the rewards feature back in April, the Commission said it was worried the design of the mechanism might negatively impact the mental health of young users by “stimulating addictive behavior.”

TikTok had temporarily suspended the rewards mechanism in the EU soon after the Commission launched its investigation. The EU had threatened to use interim powers to shut down the feature while it investigated concerns that it was encouraging people to spend excessive amounts of time on the app.

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The settlement does mean the EC has not formally found TikTok to be in breach of the DSA, so there’s no penalty. However, if TikTok fails to keep to its commitments, the Commission emphasized that the company could be sanctioned immediately under the DSA, which allows for fines of up to 6% of global annual turnover without the need for a fresh investigation. So TikTok has a pretty big compliance incentive here.

The Commission said it would monitor TikTok’s compliance to its commitments using existing processes and DSA powers, including with the help of Member State-level authorities that oversee compliance with the regulation’s general rules.

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TikTok spokesperson Elliot Burton sent TechCrunch a statement about the settlement: “We always seek to engage constructively with the European Commission and other regulators. TikTok is pleased to have reached an amicable resolution and has now withdrawn the TikTok Lite rewards programme which was launched in France and Spain in April, which we had already voluntarily suspended.”

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