Precedent corpus / ICO (United Kingdom)
Reddit, Inc.
ICO (United Kingdom) case reddit-2026-02, decided . GBP 14.5M.
We have not checked whether this decision was appealed. This is not a statement that no appeal exists.
No ConsentMark grade rests on this decision. It is published here because it is relevant enforcement, not because it bears on what a browser does before consent.
What the regulator decided
Reddit did not apply any robust age-assurance mechanism on its UK service and therefore had no lawful basis under Article 6 or Article 8 UK GDPR for processing the personal data of UK children under 13; the lawfulness and fairness principle in Article 5(1)(a) was breached and Reddit had not carried out a data protection impact assessment to assess and mitigate risks to children, in breach of Article 35 UK GDPR, before January 2025.
Primary source
Regulator-owned URL. Quote this in legal briefs and academic citations.
https://ico.org.uk/media2/hrlmvj14/reddit-mpn-20260223.pdfConsentMark interpretation
Operator-readable note on how this case shapes the ConsentMark scanner narrative. Not a legal opinion; cites the primary source.
Cite when a scanner finds an online service with under-13 reach and no age-assurance signal beyond a self-declared birth-date - the ICO has now ruled explicitly that self-declaration without verification is not lawful basis under Article 8.
Verification trail
Checked against the primary source on 27th May 2026. Next review 27th November 2026.
Cite this case
@misc{consentmark-precedent-ico-reddit-2026-02,
author = {{ConsentMark}},
year = {2026},
title = {ICO (United Kingdom) reddit-2026-02 - Reddit, Inc.},
howpublished = {\url{https://www.consentmark.com/precedent/ico-reddit-2026-02}},
note = {ConsentMark methodology v7.8.1}
}ConsentMark. (2026, February 23). ICO (United Kingdom) reddit-2026-02 - Reddit, Inc.. Methodology v7.8.1. https://www.consentmark.com/precedent/ico-reddit-2026-02[ICO (United Kingdom) reddit-2026-02 - Reddit, Inc. - ConsentMark](https://www.consentmark.com/precedent/ico-reddit-2026-02)ICO (United Kingdom) reddit-2026-02 - Reddit, Inc. - ConsentMark, 2026-02-23, methodology v7.8.1, https://www.consentmark.com/precedent/ico-reddit-2026-02