Three Dutch foundations which are pursuing legal claims against social media company TikTok can continue to fight their cases in the Dutch court system, judges in Amsterdam ruled on Wednesday.

TikTok had argued the cases should not be heard in the Netherlands because the claims were made against TikTok units in other countries, such as Ireland.

In addition, the Chinese firm said it wanted to await the outcome of an investigation by the Irish privacy watchdog and to ask the opinion of the European Court.

The three foundations are demanding billions of euros in damages from TikTok for breaching privacy regulations. They say the company illegally harvests data from its 4.5 million Dutch users.

Judges will decide in December which of the three cases should proceed.

Earlier this week, Dutch foundation SDBN said it is planning to take legal action against social media platform Twitter for illegally collecting and trading in personal details gathered via free apps such as Duolingo and Wordfeud.