GDPR Fines and Data Breach Survey: January 2023
DLA Piper has published latest annual General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Fines and Data Breach Survey of the 27 European Union Member states plus the UK, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Data protection authorities across Europe have imposed a whopping EUR1.64 billion in fines since January 28th 2022 – an astonishing 50% increase compared to what was issued in 2021! Evidently, these executives are taking charge of their mandates and sending a clear message that the General Data Protection Regulation is not to be trifled with. In fact, the European Data Protection Board has even stepped in on occasions to amplify fines proposed by Member State data protection supervisory authorities – in some cases increasing them by 630%.
It’s no surprise that ad-tech and behavioural marketing landed on top of the enforcement agenda this year. The Meta group was at the center of some of the biggest penalties, including a EUR210 million indictment from the Irish Data Protection Commission against Facebook and another EUR180 million hit against Instagram for their intrusive profiling policies.
Unsurprisingly, Ireland is responsible for five of the top ten largest fines thus far, with the total amount issued by the DPC now exceeding one billion euros.
