EL DORADO, Ark. (Legal Newsline) - Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin will get his wish to sue TikTok in a state court rather than a federal one.
Federal judge Susan Hickey on July 25 kicked Griffin's case back to Union County Circuit Court, where it was first filed. TikTok had transferred the case to federal court in May, saying Griffin's allegations raise disputed and substantial federal questions.
But Hickey ruled Griffin's lawsuit was brought under state law, and TikTok "does not direct the Court to any federal law on which the State's claims turns," she wrote.
"It follows that TikTok also does not identify any area of federal law that covers the subject matter of the State's claims 'so completely' that those claims must be 'converted into federal causes of action,'" she added. "This is fatal to TikTok's federal common law argument."
Griffin is alleging TikTok and ByteDance deceived users about the risk of access to and exploitation of consumers' content and data by the Chinese government.
The case makes seven claims under Arkansas state law and seeks to have TikTok eliminate all such user info that can be exploited by the Chinese government.
Griffin and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced three lawsuits in May - two against TikTok and one against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. They say they exploited youths' growing addiction to their platforms for profit while escaping government oversight.
“TikTok is deceiving the public regarding the harmful content it is putting in the hands of our kids, and it is deceiving the public about its ties to the Chinese Communist Party," Griffin said. "Protecting Arkansas’s youth is my highest calling, and I look forward to the fight.”
Griffin cited a ruling in Indiana's similar lawsuit that remanded it to a state court there. That decision said Indiana's consumer protection claims did not implicate any of the "narrow areas" in which federal common law exists.
"Here, TikTok cites several generalized interests that the feeral government allegedly has in TikTok's relationship with the United States and its citizens," Judge Hickey wrote.
"TikTok's liability under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act does not depend on any federal standard or statute. Stated differently, no federal issue is necessarily raised by the State's claims..."