What do the world’s biggest giants have in common? High penalties for GDPR violations…
Cosmic amounts
Amazon has been fined the highest amount so far for violating data protection laws. The Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) slapped a sanction of 746 million euros ($888 million) on them! According to the CNPD, the company was in serious violation of GDPR. The imposed penalty was the result of an investigation into Amazon’s advertising practices and the related processing of personal data. The company was accused of unauthorized use of personal data in personalized ads, particularly without the consent of the data subjects.
At this point, Amazon is disputing the validity of the penalty imposed and has announced that it will appeal.
The United States vs. European Union
It is also worth noting that European regulators are increasingly looking at the practices of such US giants as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. The second-highest fine imposed for illegal processing of personal data concerned Google. And it amounted to about 57 million dollars!
The provisions of RODO stipulate that the penalty imposed by the supervisory authority may be up to EUR 20 million or 4% of the company’s annual global revenues. The amount applied depends on which of the indicated values is higher.
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