Commission accepts TikTok’s commitments on advertising transparency under the Digital Services Act

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

Today, the European Commission secured TikTok’s commitment to provide advertising repositories that ensure full transparency around ads on its services, as required by the Digital Services Act (DSA).  

After extensive engagement with the Commission, TikTok has submitted binding commitments that address all the concerns raised by the Commission in its investigation and preliminary findings from May 2025. These commitments, which ensure full transparency, include the following:

• TikTok will provide the full content of the advertisement as it appears in users’ feeds, including the URLs in the link provided in the ad.
• TikTok will update its repository more quickly, ensuring information is available within a maximum of 24 hours.
• TikTok will provide the targeting criteria selected by advertisers, along with aggregated user data (including gender, age group and Member State where the users who were reached are located), enabling researchers to investigate how ads are targeted and delivered.
• TikTok will introduce additional search options and filters, allowing users to find advertisements more easily.

The DSA requires platforms to maintain an accessible and searchable repository of the ads running on their services. These repositories are critical for regulators, researchers, and civil society to detect scams, advertisements for illegal or age-inappropriate products, fake advertisements, and coordinated information operations, including in the context of elections. 

Next Steps

TikTok must implement the commitments as soon as possible, and by the latest within deadlines agreed with the Commission, varying from 2 to maximum 12 months depending on the specific commitment. 

The Commission will carefully monitor TikTok’s compliance with the binding commitments the platform has offered under article 71 of the DSA, as well as with its other obligations under the DSA.

Background

On 19 February 2024, the Commission opened formal proceedings to assess whether TikTok may have breached the Digital Services Act. On advertising transparency, the Commission published preliminary findings of non-compliance in May 2025 and accepted commitments today.  The proceedings also covered the negative effects stemming from the design of TikTok, including its algorithmic systems, age assurance, data access for researchers (preliminary findings adopted in October 2025), and its obligation to protect minors, for which the investigation continues.

The Commission has also opened formal proceedings against TikTok in December 2024 on its management of risks related to elections and civic discourse, for which the investigation continues.