TikTok Lite: EU closes addictive design case after TikTok commits to not bring back rewards mechanism

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.

Briefing journalists on background, a senior Commission official said the enforcer is happy with the outcome as it has delivered a quick result that enables EU citizens, including minors, to be protected.

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.

Commenting in a statement, Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, said: “The available brain time of young Europeans is not a currency for social media — and it never will be. We have obtained the permanent withdrawal of TikTok Lite Rewards programme, which could have had very addictive consequences. The DSA is in full swing.”

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.”

While this TikTok DSA case is now closed, another, more wide-ranging investigation announced back in February is still ongoing.

That case concerns the main TikTok app’s algorithm, among other areas. The Commission has said it’s worried the design of the tracking-based recommender engine may lead to “rabbit hole effects,” where users who view one video on a topic can be recommended more extreme videos that could lead to an amplification of harmful content, such as videos promoting eating disorders.

The EU is also concerned TikTok is not using robust enough age-assurance measures to protect kids from accessing inappropriate content. TikTok’s compliance with DSA transparency requirements are also being investigated.

For more on how the DSA and its sister regulation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), are impacting Big Tech platforms, check out our earlier reporting.