London, May 2 -- European Union privacy watchdogs fined TikTok 530 million euros ($600 million) on Friday after a four-year investigation found that the video sharing app's data transfers to China breached strict data privacy rules in the EU.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission also sanctioned TikTok for not being transparent with users about where their personal data was being sent and it ordered the company to comply with the rules within six months, AP reports.

The Irish national watchdog serves as TikTok's lead data privacy regulator in the 27-nation EU because the company's European headquarters is based in Dublin.

"TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of (European) users, remotely accessed by...