The State of Indiana’s lawsuit against social media company TikTok has been dismissed.
Almost a year after the case was filed in Allen County Superior Court by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, Judge Jennifer DeGroote ruled the court does not have any jurisdiction over the China-based company and that it has not violated Indiana's laws.
In December 2022, Rokita sued TikTok and its parent company ByteDance in two separate cases. In the first lawsuit, he alleged TikTok violates Indiana’s Deceptive Consumer Sales Act by not disclosing that data may be subject to Chinese law.
TikTok’s lawyers argued the court has no jurisdiction in these cases because they cannot prove the app is targeting Indiana residents specifically and, thus, the charges fall under federal jurisdiction.
In June, U.S. District Court Judge Holly Brady released an order saying the federal court would not take jurisdiction of the complaint, after TikTok requested the case be moved to federal court.
In her ruling, DeGroote said that state court had no jurisdiction either. She found the court had no jurisdiction, either general or specific, over the company, in her ruling that the state does not have specific jurisdiction over the company, and that because the app is free to download, it does not violate Indiana law.
In the other, the state accused the app of luring children with deceptive labeling and then allowing them access to inappropriate content on the app.
DeGroote also ruled that TikTok’s statements were not deceptive as a matter of law.
Below are the judge's orders dismissing both cases:
