Luxembourg fined Amazon 746 million euros ($880 million) for allegedly violating EU data protection standards. The Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection announced the fine on July 16 after concluding that “Amazon’s processing of personal data does not comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) punished Amazon million for violating data privacy requirements. Since the regulation’s enactment, the fine is thought to be the greatest ever for a data protection infringement. The firm said it will “vigorously defend itself” in the action, which was started by a European consumer group.
The European Union’s antitrust agency penalized Amazon for more than 100 million euros for failing to comply with new data privacy regulations. It’s the latest instance of a US IT company being charged with breaking the groundbreaking GDPR rule. Last year, French authorities penalized Amazon 35 million euros for breaking browser “cookie” restrictions.
In Ireland, Facebook is being investigated after the personal information of 533 million members was stolen on a hacker website. Internet users now have a broader variety of data-related rights under the GDPR. Regulators now have unprecedented powers, including the ability to penalize companies up to 4% of their global turnover.
Amazon revealed the information as part of its quarterly earnings report which revealed that profits grew 48 percent year over year to $7.8 billion and revenues increased 27 percent to $113.1 billion in the April-June period. Fines have been imposed on technology companies, advertisers, data brokers, Austria’s postal service, and even the Spanish football league, La Liga, as a result of the GDPR data privacy rule.
