EU Launches Investigation, Threatens to Suspend TikTok Lite App's 'Addictive' Reward-to-Watch Feature

(Photo: KIRAN RIDLEY/AFP via Getty Images)

On Monday, the European Union started legal action against ByteDance's TikTok, in which it threatened to halt its recently released TikTok Lite rewards program.

TikTok Lite was launched in France and Spain in March.

Through the app's reward system, users who are 18 or older can earn points that can be redeemed for products like vouchers or gift cards.

In a statement released on Monday, the European Commission expressed its concerns about the app's "risks of serious damage to the mental health of users," especially minors.

TikTok Lite is a smaller version of the famous TikTok app that runs better over slower internet connections and requires less smartphone memory.

Last week, the commission said that TikTok failed to deliver a risk assessment for the spinoff app by an April 18 deadline, demanding that the company offer it by Tuesday.

It threatens to implement temporary measures, such as suspending the EU awards program "while the program's safety is evaluated."

TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, has until Wednesday to file a formal defense against the proposed measure.

The commission also threatened to impose fines of up to one percent of TikTok's global turnover or total annual income and periodic penalties of up to five percent of the company's average daily revenue or global turnover if the company did not respond to the request.

Furthermore, TikTok said it would continue its talks with the commission and that children could not participate in the rewards program.

The investigation is the EU's second against TikTok under a comprehensive new law, the Digital Services Act (DSA), that requires digital companies to monitor more content online.

Thierry Breton, the European Commission's top tech enforcer, has suspected TikTok Lite as toxic and addictive as cigarettes' light.