CHARLESTON – A potential class action has been filed against TikTok claiming the popular social media app has broken numerous state and federal laws.
The federal complaint was filed March 4 by Amanda Hinkle of Craigsville on behalf of her 9-year-old daughter, identified as A.H., against ByteDance Inc., ByteDance Ltd., TikTok Ltd., TikTok Inc., TikTok Pte Ltd. and TikTok U.S. Data Security Inc. It's the first such case filed against TikTok in West Virginia.
The complaint claims the defendant companies has violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act as well as other laws.
Giatras
| File photo
“We know they target, advertise to and entice kids,” attorney Troy Giatras told The West Virginia Record. “They have a lot of kids’ accounts, and they prey on them.”
TikTok has more than 1.9 billion users globally and about 170 million in the United States. The complaint says the app allows minors to use it without verifying age or notifying parents when minor children use the app. It also doesn’t receive parental consent when minors use the app.
“While the minors use TikTok, TikTok collects data from the minors, sells it to third parties and uses the data to target the minors,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff brings this class action against defendants for its failure to disclose that it collects and sells personally identifiable information of millions of minor children without the consent of the minors or their parents.”
That information, according to the complaint, includes name, age, profile image, password, email, phone number, address, approximate location, social media account information, phone and social media contacts, messages sent and received between users, information in the clipboard of the user’s device and payment card numbers.
The complaint says the companies collect and sell access to this personal data without notice, knowledge or consent. It says TikTok violates COPPA, which became law in 1998, by not requiring direct notice to parents or not gaining parents’ verifiable consent even after a 2019 U.S. Department of Justice permanent injunction against the company regarding these same issues.
TikTok’s predecessor Musical.ly launched in 2014, and ByteDance created TikTok in 2017. In late 2017, ByteDance purchased Musical.ly for almost $1 billion, and the companies merged in August 2018.
In February 2019, the DOJ filed a complaint against Musical.ly for violating COPPA. In March 2019, a federal judge entered the permanent injunction against Musical.ly for failing to ensure parents receive direct notice and for failing to obtain parental consent. Later in the year, Musical.ly was renamed TikTok.
“This renaming did not change the companies’ obligations under the 2019 permanent injunction,” Giatras said. “They’re violating the old agreement they made, and they’re still violating COPPA. They’re also violating the West Virgina Consumer Credit and Collection Act as well as other laws.
“A lot of times, parents don’t even know their kids are on TikTok. It helps educates families, and it’s important for parents to know this. Did they get notice and give consent?”
In August 2024, the DOJ filed a new complaint alleging TikTok violated COPPA.
Giatras said he and his firm believe it is important to protect people in these types of data cases.
“TikTok is so big that it’s their business model not to follow the law,” he said. “I can say courts finally are coming around to understand data is valuable. And that’s a good thing. It is money. It’s a commodity.
“We’ve always been on the cutting edge of data privacy and consumer protection. For the last decade or so, we’ve been bringing data breach cases and online privacy cases. But in addition to bringing these cases, we try to educate about these types of cases, and we even help draw up legislation for it.
“We are a player in the arena of protecting anyone’s identity, privacy and data. It’s been a major focus of our firm. We do it in West Virginia and around the country.”
The complaint accuses the defendants of invasion of privacy and unjust enrichment. And for class members in West Virginia, it says the companies violated the WVCCPA.
The potential class is United States residents younger than 13 years old when they used TikTok with a West Virginia subclass of those younger than 13 when they used the app.
In addition to class certification, the plaintiffs seek an order declaring the conduct violates statutes and causes of action, an order for the defendants to pay for lifetime credit monitoring and dark web scanning services, compensatory damages, statutory damages, punitive damages, pre-judgment interest, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
Giatras and Matthew Stonestreet of The Giatras Law Firm in Charleston are representing the plaintiffs. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 2:25-cv-00142