A UK business owner says he was nearly driven to bankruptcy after his daughter unknowingly ran up a massive phone bill simply by watching TikTok — not by buying anything on the platform.
Andrew Alty, who owns a curtains business in Manchester, discovered he had been charged £42,000 ($56,000) after returning from a family trip to Morocco. The amount came in two separate bills, which he initially assumed were a mistake or the result of hacking.
Alty told The Telegraph that his daughter had spent around eight hours scrolling on TikTok during the trip, unknowingly triggering roaming data charges that worked out to roughly £5,000 per hour.
The high costs were due to a clause in his mobile contract allowing uncapped data roaming outside Europe.
After media scrutiny, the telecom provider waived the charges. Alty said he was shocked the fees were allowed to accumulate without warning, questioning how any small business could afford such a bill.