Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Europe's privacy overhaul has led to $126 million in fines - but regulators are just getting started

Europe's privacy overhaul has led to $126 million in fines - but regulators are just getting started

The EU’s GDPR privacy law led to over 160,000 data breach notifications, according to law firm DLA Piper. The biggest penalty under GDPR to date was a fine of 50 million euros imposed on Google, DLA Piper says. DLA Piper Partner Ross McKean says there will be “slow progress” before much bigger fines are imposed.
The European Union’s overhaul of data privacy regulation is estimated to have generated 114 million euros ($126 million) in fines since it was introduced almost two years ago.

Since its implementation in May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) led to over 160,000 data breach notifications across Europe, according to research from multinational law firm DLA Piper.

Ross McKean, a partner at DLA Piper specializing in cyber and data protection, said his firm’s findings showed “we’re still in the very early days” of enforcement. It’s been roughly 20 months since the EU’s new rules were introduced.

“It’s not a huge surprise that we’re seeing a slow start to fines, but there’s more to come,” McKean told CNBC in an interview.

The biggest fine under GDPR to date was a penalty dished out by the French data protection regulator. The CNIL fined Google 50 million euros last year for alleged infringements of GDPR. Those infringements were related to transparency and a lack of valid consent, rather than a data breach.

Under GDPR, a company can be fined either 20 million euros or up to 4% of their annual revenues, whichever is the greater amount. The stakes are considerably high for companies like Google and Facebook, which handle a huge amount of data and make billions of dollars every year.

Authorities have been looking into potential violations of the landmark EU law across the continent. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has multiple ongoing investigations into GDPR violations, probing a range of big tech companies from Facebook to Apple.

Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office last year announced notices of intent to impose fines on British Airways and Marriott International, collectively amounting to about £282 million, but DLA Piper points out that both penalties are yet to be finalized.

The regulator also fined Facebook £500,000 ($651,000) over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but that pertained to privacy violations that took place before GDPR was introduced.

Cambridge Analytica, which once claimed to have run all the digital operations for President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, found itself at the heart of a massive privacy headache for Facebook in 2018. The social network improperly shared the data of 87 million users with the now-infamous — and defunct — U.K. political consultancy.


‘Slow progress’

DLA Piper said that the rate of data breach notifications increased almost 13% from the first eight months of GDPR to the current year.

The firm notes that not all member states of the EU make their breach notification statistics publicly available and that many only provided figures for part of the period covered by the report. It therefore rounded up the numbers and, in some cases, had to extrapolate to provide accurate approximations.

GDPR has been a point of notable frustration for Europe’s data protection authorities, as well as businesses. While the regulators have the power to levy sizable fines, DLA Piper’s McKean said that some may be put off doing so as they’re often under-resourced and wary of being faced with appeals.

Labelling GDPR a “vague law,” McKean said: “It is going to be a slow progress to get the legal certainty regulators need to start whacking companies with higher fines.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×