EU court adviser urges dismissal of ByteDance challenge to TikTok gatekeeper status

A senior adviser to the European Union's highest court has recommended that ByteDance lose its legal challenge to TikTok's designation as a "gatekeeper" platform, in an opinion delivered in Brussels on Thursday 15 October.

Advocate General Andrea Biondi of the Court of Justice of the European Union sided with EU regulators in the dispute, advising the judges to dismiss ByteDance's action against the European Commission's decision. Gatekeeper status under the Digital Markets Act carries strict obligations for large technology companies, and TikTok's owner has fought being placed in that category.

The opinion is not binding. The final ruling rests with the judges of the Court of Justice, who are expected to decide in the coming months. The case is registered as C-627/24 P Bytedance v Commission. Advisers' opinions are usually followed: judges have historically agreed with roughly four out of five of these non-binding recommendations.

Why the designation matters

The Digital Markets Act places Gatekeeper platforms under duties covering how they operate across the EU. ByteDance's challenge targets the Commission's decision to apply those duties to TikTok, and Thursday's opinion recommends that the challenge fail. What the judges decide will settle whether the platform stays subject to the regime.

The ruling comes while TikTok faces separate scrutiny in Brussels. In February 2026 the European Commission said it had, at this stage, found that TikTok breaches the Digital Services Act through addictive design, naming infinite scroll, autoplay, push alerts and a feed tuned to each user. In July 2026 the Commission sent further preliminary findings that accounts for under-18s fall short of required safety standards, since teenagers could make their accounts public, letting their content be recommended to anyone on the app. Neither finding is a final decision.

TikTok in the courts elsewhere

The EU dispute is one part of wider TikTok court cases over harm to children. In September 2026 a Texas judge, Cory Liu, found without a jury that TikTok broke state law by misleading the public about how safe the app is for children, with a trial on civil penalties due in October 2026. In the United States, school district test trials against Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube continue, after the first such case settled before trial in 2026 and further trials were listed for 2027.

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