A tentative no with nine-figure consequences
A federal judge in Los Angeles said on September 18, 2026 that he would refuse the government’s unopposed request to terminate the 2019 consent order against Musical.ly, the app that became TikTok. The ruling is tentative, with a hearing set for Monday, September 21, but it puts the final $100 million of a $400 million settlement in doubt.
The 2019 order grew out of a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit alleging Musical.ly collected personal information from children under 13 without parental consent. It imposed a permanent injunction, a $5.7 million civil penalty, and ongoing reporting, recordkeeping and monitoring duties that run until 2029.
Why the $100 million is now conditional
The Justice Department and TikTok asked the court to vacate the 2019 order as part of a new settlement. Under the announced deal, $300 million is payable immediately and $100 million is due only upon vacating the prior consent decree. Judge George H. Wu’s tentative conclusion was direct: he wrote that the court “would deny it without prejudice,” according to the ruling reported by PPC Land. The without-prejudice label leaves room for the government to try again with a fuller record.
The court was not given the full settlement terms, and the government’s papers were ambiguous on whether the money had already been paid. Judge Wu rejected the claim that courts should defer to the executive branch on an unopposed motion to end a consent decree.
The three arguments that didn’t hold
DOJ and TikTok pointed to three changes since 2019: new ownership, improved platform safeguards and the monetary settlement. Judge Wu found each insufficient.
- Ownership: COPPA applies whether the operator is foreign or domestically owned, and the 2019 order already binds successors and assigns.
- Platform changes: TikTok now requires date-of-birth entry and removed third-party sign-in routes. But the court said having age-gate tools is not the same as proving they work, especially after the 2024 complaint alleged children bypassed an earlier gate.
- Settlement: A monetary payment may deter, but it does not replace reporting and monitoring mechanisms designed to detect violations and verify compliance.
For media buyers: evidence over assurances
The practical question behind any COPPA ruling is whether you can trust what a platform says about its under-13 audience. This decision is a reminder that claiming compliance is not the same as demonstrating it. That gap also exists in media buying.
CIMM research cited by PPC Land found that presence-of-children data proves correct only 42% of the time. If your campaigns touch COPPA-sensitive content or broad family demographics, treat kid-adjacent audience segments as probabilistic, not factual.
Before scaling spend, ask ad platforms and data partners what validation, accuracy data or third-party measurement backs up their age claims. Layer contextual signals, first-party data and independent verification instead of relying on self-declared age. Start with the partners who can show, not just state, how under-13 users are excluded.
The regulatory direction points the same way. The FTC named children’s online privacy a 2026–2030 enforcement priority, and the amended COPPA Rule reached full compliance on April 22, 2026. If the tentative ruling holds, TikTok may stay under court-ordered reporting and monitoring until 2029.
Source: PPC Land
