Seven years after former Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham told MPs that a probe into TikTok would conclude ”in the fall,” the enforcement saga has finally come to an end.

This week on the Privacy Partnership Podcast, Robert Bateman breaks down the history of the ICO's £12.7 million penalty against the social media giant following the company's unexpected decision to withdraw two appeals.

We explore the original investigation into underage users, TikTok's highly creative ”artistic purposes” legal defence, and why the sudden withdrawal of a second appeal means one historic chapter is closed while a brand new regulatory investigation gets unblocked.

In this episode, Robert discusses:

The timeline of the investigation: A look back at the historic window (May 2018–July 2020) during which up to 1.4 million UK under-13s were bypassing TikTok’s age gates, and the internal documents that caught the ICO's attention.

From £27m to £12.7m: Why the ICO ultimately deprioritised its Article 9 (special category data) investigation, bringing the final penalty down from the original notice of intent.

Consent vs. Contractual Necessity: A deep dive into the application of Article 8 (children's consent) and why the ICO rejected TikTok's argument that its core service relied on contractual necessity for under-13s.

The ”Artistic Purposes” Defence: A breakdown of TikTok's inventive attempt to use the DPA 2018's ”special purposes” protections to stall the penalty, featuring expert testimony from an Oxford professor of the philosophy of art.

The Upper Tribunal's Ruling: How the courts drew a firm line between a platform distributing artistic content and an algorithm processing personal data for an artistic purpose.

What’s Next for TikTok: We explain the significance of TikTok dropping its second appeal against an information notice, and how this unblocks a separate, ongoing ICO investigation into how the platform's recommender systems use the data of 13- to 17-year-olds.