TikTok Global is suing TikTok Inc., ByteDance, and ByteDance’s founder, Yiming Zhang, and is seeking no less than $58 billion.
TikTok Global is accusing TikTok Inc., ByteDance, and ByteDance’s founder, Yiming Zhang, of antitrust violations and conspiracy to keep control of TikTok’s US operations ahead of the looming ban.
The Florida-based limited liability company, which is responsible for overseeing operations in the US, was supposedly tricked out of acquiring ByteDance’s TikTok Inc.
TikTok Global was supposedly created by American investors in an attempt to acquire the platform’s US operations.
The lawsuit reads that TikTok Global discovered that “the game was rigged from the start.”
ByteDance supposedly had “other plans that circumvented proper procedures, stifled competition, and maintained ByteDance’s control over TikTok’s US operations – all under the guise of compliance with the executive order,” the lawsuit reads.
This executive order involves the Chinese-owned company ByteDance divesting TikTok’s US operations over issues of national security.
TikTok Global has said it filed a $33.3 billion acquisition agreement for TikTok’s US operation.
Furthermore, TikTok Global claims that the brand’s intellectual property was stolen and used to trick the public during a live CNBC broadcast. This was supposedly used to undermine the agreement.
After this agreement was suppressed, TikTok Global submitted an updated agreement on September 24th, 2024, increasing the value to $58 billion.
However, according to the suit, ByteDance and its CEO, Yiming Zhang, didn’t accept the “two genuine buyout offers.”
The acquisition agreement was allegedly suppressed, and instead, ByteDance decided to entertain an agreement with Oracle.
ByteDance and technology giant Oracle “conspired with cold precision” to undermine competition in the social media market, allowing ByteDance to maintain control of “TikTok’s US operations rather than divesting to an independent and competitive rival,” the lawsuit states.
ByteDance is supposedly maintaining its grip on TikTok by “erecting insurmountable barriers to entry, stifling legitimate acquisition offers that dare to challenge their dominion.”
Both parties supposedly “engaged in an unlawful conspiracy in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, which makes it illegal for corporations to engage in anticompetitive practices.
TikTok Global claims that this unlawful conspiracy was “a meticulously engineered maneuver, shrouded in subterfuge, designed to trap TikTok's future by perpetuating ByteDance's monopoly over its US operations, all under a facade of legal compliance.”
TikTok Global is seeking no less than $58 billion in damages or to take control of any US asset that TikTok Inc. abandons.
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