Proposed class action lawsuit was launched against TikTokaccusing the popular video-sharing platform of exposing children and teenagers to harmful content and using their data to target advertisements without their consent or knowledge.
The civil suit was filed in British Columbia Supreme Court in October after federal and provincial confidentiality commission members came to the same conclusions after more than two years of investigation It also emerged that TikTok failed to keep young children away from the platform, despite the company saying the app is not intended for users under 13.
Lawyers behind the class action are now looking for other affected Canadians, not including Quebecers, who used TikTok between October 2021 and October 2025 to sign up.
Linda Visser, a partner at Siskinds LLP, which is filing the class action along with Rice Harbut Elliott LLP, told Global News in an email that the law firms have received “more than 100 inquiries” from potential plaintiffs.
“We hope that through the class action we can get compensation for people whose information was misused and then improve practices in the future so that companies are more transparent about what information is collected and used,” she said in an interview.
Visser said she hopes the class action will be approved sometime next year or early 2027 at the latest, but that will depend on court availability.
She added that law firms are “still engaged in serving” the defendants, which include not only TikTok and its Canadian subsidiary, but also its Chinese owner ByteDance.
The claims of the lawsuit have not yet been proven in court. Visser said a hearing to appoint a judge in the case is scheduled for early next year.
The class action representative, referred to in the lawsuit as SL, was under 13 years old when he created his TikTok account in 2021, according to allegations contained in court documents.
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The statement said SL used TikTok for approximately one to two hours a day to chat with friends and watch videos related to their interests. The BC user would like to share and share the videos, but did not typically comment on them or share details about their specific interests with TikTok.
“At the time of registering a user account on TikTok, SL had not read any policies, terms or conditions of the Platform and was unaware that TikTok would collect, use and share their confidential information, including information obtained through their online activities both on and off the Platform, for tracking, profiling and advertising purposes,” the lawsuit states.
“TikTok has never asked for proof of SL’s age or any form of consent from SL’s parents regarding their use of the platform.”
The lawsuit also highlights TikTok's targeted advertising practices, including the company's “mantra” for advertising partners: “Don't advertise. Make TikTok.”
These guidelines, combined with TikTok users' sharing of information with third-party advertisers, “blur the line between advertising and content on the platform, increasing user attention to advertising, reducing the likelihood of ad skipping, and increasing the likelihood that advertising will influence user behavior,” the statement said.
Children and teens “are at particular risk of privacy violations and secondary harms resulting from these practices,” the statement added, as well as the ability for users to purchase products advertised to them directly through TikTok Shop.
It cites resolutions and statements from third-party organizations such as the Global Privacy Assembly and UNICEF, as well as research from the National Library of Medicine, which reached similar conclusions.
“As for all class members, TikTok has never provided a clear, comprehensive, and meaningful explanation of its practices related to targeted advertising and content personalization,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit cites data from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, which states that 40 per cent of Canadians (about 14 million people) use TikTok, with 70 per cent of those users under 40 years of age. Nearly three-quarters of Canadian teens use the app, while 40 per cent of Canadians under 13 “use or have used” TikTok, despite the platform's supposed age restriction.
The lawsuit says TikTok also used inadequate age verification or “age gate” measures, as well as “opt-out rather than opt-in advertising practices” that children cannot fully understand or consent to—a finding that privacy commissioners also highlighted in their September findings.
It also accuses TikTok of failing to comply with requests from parents and guardians to delete their children's accounts, and of having “grossly inadequate and ineffective” measures to detect and remove underage users.
“At all material times, TikTok knew or should have known that its age enforcement measures were ineffective,” the lawsuit states.
“Although the company had tools capable of detecting minor users on the platform… it chose not to use these technologies to prevent, identify or remove minor users’ access to the platform, resulting in an intentional and significant invasion of the privacy of members of the child class.”
The class action seeks $500 million in general damages and $20 million in aggravated damages or such other amount as a judge deems appropriate, as well as an admission by TikTok that it violated the rights and obligations of class members to update its policies and practices.
TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit's allegations.
Following the investigation, privacy commissioners in Ottawa, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec said TikTok committed to “stop using granular information such as interests derived from use of the platform to target advertising to users under 18,” among other changes in response to the findings.
“We welcome the conclusion of this investigation after working openly and constructively with the privacy commissioners and are pleased that they have agreed to a number of our proposals to further strengthen our platform for Canadians,” a TikTok spokesperson said at the time.
“While we disagree with some of the findings, we remain committed to maintaining strict rules of transparency and confidentiality.”
Visser said she hopes the class action will lead to damages and improved child protection efforts, but acknowledged that past attempts to hold TikTok accountable have resulted in settlements and no changes to its practices.
She pointed specifically to TikTok pays $2 million in 2022 to end class action lawsuits filed in British Columbia that accused the company of violating the privacy rights of both minors and adults.
However, Visser added, “we would not have started this business if we were not confident that we would achieve a good outcome for our students.”
