Amazon was fined US$886.6 million (£636 million) for allegedly violating EU privacy laws.
The fine was imposed by the Luxembourg Data Protection Commission, which claimed that the processing of personal data by the tech giant did not comply with EU law.
Amazon considered the fines "unreasonable" and added that it would "vigorously" defend itself. A spokeswoman told the BBC that “there was no data leakage”. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires companies to obtain people's consent before using their personal data or facing heavy fines.
According to a document submitted by Amazon to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Luxembourg's data protection agency, also known as the National Commission for Withdrawal Protection (CNPD), imposed a fine on Amazon on July 16.
In response, Amazon said: “We believe that the CNPD’s decision is unreasonable and we intend to vigorously defend this issue.” The fine was issued after the regulators strengthened the supervision of large technology companies because they Worries about confidentiality and misinformation, and some companies complain about the abuse of market power by tech giants.
The Wall Street Journal reported in June that Amazon may be fined more than US$425 million under EU privacy laws.
Amazon is far from the first major company to violate the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but the penalty is the highest fine since the law came into effect in 2018, and the difference is very obvious. This regulation imposes strict restrictions on the use, storage or processing of confidential data. Although companies such as Google, British Airways, HandM, and Marriott Hotels have faced European government sanctions for violating regulations, these fines are tens of millions, not hundreds of millions.
We do not yet know what Amazon did to cause such a severe sentence, but since the national authorities need to consider the severity, duration and nature of the violation when deciding on the sentence, they must be particularly severe.
This shows that the law is in place, and even a country like Luxembourg, which is very tolerant of American multinational companies, is ready to enforce it by force. But so far, Amazon has also taken direct action: it believes that the decision of the Luxembourg authorities is inappropriate and promises to resolutely defend itself.
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