Minors, addictive design, ads & data access

Addictive "rabbit-hole" recommender effects, protection of minors, the advertising repository and researcher data access.

• Art. 28
• Art. 34
• Art. 35
• Art. 39
• Art. 40

1. February 19, 2024Formal proceedings opened

   Covering addictive design and the "rabbit hole" effect, minors’ safety and default settings, the ad repository and researcher data access. Source ↗

2. May 15, 2025Preliminary finding — ad repository

   TikTok’s ad repository preliminarily breaches Art. 39: missing content/targeting/funding data and not comprehensively searchable. Source ↗

3. October 24, 2025Preliminary finding — data access

   TikTok (alongside Meta) preliminarily in breach of Art. 40: burdensome procedures and tools for researcher access to public data. Source ↗

4. December 5, 2025Commitments accepted — ad transparency

   Binding Art. 71 commitments close the advertising-transparency strand: full ad content incl. URLs, ≤24h repository updates, targeting criteria and added search filters. Source ↗

5. February 6, 2026Preliminary finding — addictive design

   TikTok preliminarily in breach over addictive design (infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications); the Commission says it must change the basic design, e.g. disable infinite scroll over time. Source ↗