On TikTok in the US, the price of a set in a live auction is set by the highest bid, yet the buyer does not know which item they will get from it. TikTok presented live auctions to sellers as a contest with no luck involved, and yet its US rules let in surprise sets with random contents, which are rationed to younger buyers item by item.
Under the version dated 19 October 2026, buyers under 25 have a daily cap of eight items. Any buyer who wins twenty such sets must then take a mandatory fifteen-minute break. For now, the rules allow chance-based items only for collectibles.
Collectibles and curiosities are what Whatnot, the US live shopping app, has built its audience on since its founding. At its core are auctions with real-time bidding. Its first orders in 2020 were Funko Pop figures, sold on livestream by co-founder Grant LaFontaine himself. In August 2026 Whatnot raised investment at a valuation of twenty billion dollars.
Alongside auctions, Whatnot also sells cards with random contents, so-called breaks and repacks. Because of them, Whatnot faces arbitration claims in the US alleging illegal gambling. “Our cases focus on Whatnot allegedly running an illegal casino without the safeguards that regulated casinos are required to have to protect consumers,” said lawyer Paul Lesko, who filed the first fifteen arbitration claims in March 2026. Whatnot rejected the allegations as unfounded. According to the company, gambling is not permitted on the platform.
According to Entrepreneur, Whatnot has introduced spending limits, a cap on viewing time and a button that stops spending immediately to counter excessive spending. “I’m totally addicted to it,” one buyer says of the app. By her own estimate, she spent about $120,000 over three years.
Binding bids in live auctions and the withdrawal period
For a buyer who wins a US TikTok auction, the winning bid is legally binding. A bid for a single surprise set is capped at $5,000, and at a thousand dollars for coins and currency. The seller must show the item won from such a set to the camera for at least two seconds immediately after the win.
After winning a live auction, buyers in Germany and France can also rely on consumer law. Whatnot was streaming there by 2024 at the latest. In Germany, a purchase made during a livestream is legally an ordinary distance contract, and buyers can generally withdraw from it within fourteen days, says a German consumer advice centre. According to a Paris lawyer, a Whatnot auction probably does not count as the kind of public auction that rules out withdrawal, and when buying from a professional seller the law gives the buyer more than the platform’s rules.
TikTok Shop in the EU and Czech customers
Beyond the platform’s rules, in April 2025 eighteen MEPs asked the European Commission in writing about TikTok Shop’s expansion in Europe and its impact on minors. They warned that one-click payment in the shop could lead minors into excessive spending and debt, and asked whether the Commission thought such features should be assessed under the Digital Services Act (DSA). In June the Commission replied that TikTok had submitted a special (ad hoc) risk assessment under the DSA before launching the shop in the EU. Its supervision of TikTok Shop’s impact, including the protection of minors, was ongoing at the time.
Eligible UK sellers can offer goods to Czechia through TikTok Shop thanks to the Sell Across EU feature. TikTok has no local shop there, unlike in Germany. With TikTok Shop’s expansion, defective goods and aggressive sales practices could also reach Czechia, Tomáš Prouza, president of the Czech Confederation of Commerce and Tourism, warned in September. The Sell Across EU guide makes no mention of auctions, livestreaming or the daily limits and breaks that TikTok’s US rules impose on buyers of surprise sets.
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