Austrian advocacy group Noyb filed a privacy complaint on Thursday against six Chinese companies, including TikTok, Shein and Xiaomi, alleging they are illegally sending EU user data to China.
The group is seeking to impose fines of up to 4% of each company’s global revenue, and has filed six complaints in four European countries to suspend data transfers.
Noyeb stated that TikTok, Shen, Xiaomi and Alibaba admit to transferring EU user data to China, while Tencent’s Temu and WeChat are transferring data to unspecified “third countries”, which Noyeb believes is most likely China.
Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data transfers outside the EU are only permitted if the receiving country provides equivalent data protection. Noib has previously filed complaints against US companies, resulting in fines and investigations.
Chinese companies, including ByteDance-owned TikTok, are facing scrutiny from regulators in various countries. TikTok is set to shut down its app for US users on Sunday if the federal ban goes into effect.
The European Commission is also investigating TikTok for possible failures to limit interference in elections, including the recent presidential election in Romania.