A federal judge indicated that he plans to reject part of a $400 million settlement between TikTok, ByteDance and the U.S. Justice Department over children’s privacy violations, casting uncertainty over a deal the two sides reached last month.

According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge George H. Wu in Los Angeles said he was inclined to deny a request to terminate a 2019 consent decree tied to the case and scheduled a hearing for September 21. Wu wrote that without further detail, the court “cannot determine that it constitutes a durable remedy or that termination is suitably tailored to the asserted change in circumstance.”

The settlement, announced by the Justice Department on August 21, calls for TikTok to pay $300 million immediately and an additional $100 million if the consent decree is vacated. The department called it one of the largest recoveries ever obtained in a case brought under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said at the time that the resolution “secures a substantial recovery while reinforcing the protections that families expect and deserve,” and Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Civil Division said it “reflects the Department’s commitment to ensuring children receive the full protections that Congress mandated.”

The consent decree dates to 2019, when the FTC alleged that Musical.ly, the app TikTok later absorbed, knew young children were using the service but collected names, email addresses and other personal information without parental consent. Musical.ly paid a $5.7 million penalty at the time. The decree obligates TikTok to maintain reporting and record-keeping requirements through 2029, and Wu’s tentative ruling would keep those obligations in place despite the new settlement.

The broader $400 million deal resolves a 2024 Justice Department lawsuit accusing TikTok and ByteDance of violating COPPA by collecting personal data from users under 13 without parental consent. The government has said TikTok made substantial changes since the suit was filed, including to its ownership structure, management, compliance functions and privacy practices.

In January, ByteDance agreed to set up a majority American-owned joint venture covering U.S. user data as part of an arrangement intended to avert a ban on the app, which claims more than 200 million American users. In a court filing, the TikTok U.S. joint venture said it now requires all users to enter a date of birth and has built age-moderation systems designed to catch children under 13 who misrepresent their age.

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