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Belgium has imposed 39 GDPR fines since the rules were introduced, with Meta paying the most

  • July 14, 2023
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According to the numbers, Belgium is cautious about its GDPR fines. Our country issued 39 fines but is still in the top 10. Unsurprisingly, Meta is the worst

Belgium has imposed 39 GDPR fines since the rules were introduced, with Meta paying the most

According to the numbers, Belgium is cautious about its GDPR fines. Our country issued 39 fines but is still in the top 10. Unsurprisingly, Meta is the worst student in the class.

Since the introduction of the GDPR, our country has imposed 39 fines. This puts Belgium in ninth place among European member states, just ahead of Cyprus (37) but behind Poland (50). Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, but everyone should expect the Spanish Data Protection Authority. No country is more zealous with 651 fines. Italy follows in second place with 265 fines, while Germany, although very privacy-conscious, remains silent with 148 fines.

In terms of volume, Ireland isn’t in the top ten, but if the country’s data protection regulator gets angry, they’ll be there. No Member State opts for higher fines, with an average amount of EUR 104.5 million per infringement. Luxembourg follows in second place with 24 million euros. Ireland’s prominent role is not surprising. Many large tech companies are headquartered in the country, so breaches have a major impact immediately.

Meta sponsors the most

Mark Zuckerberg and Meta don’t believe in privacy, nor do they believe in European law. We have seen this extensively before. The fines of the GDPR support this finding. No other company got more pessimistic calculations. In Ireland, Meta not only had to pay a monster fine of 1.2 billion euros, but also fines of 405, 380 and 265 million euros. WhatsApp, which belongs to Meta, adds another 225 million euros.

Zuckerberg has all but second place in his hands in the top six. It goes to Amazon, for which Luxembourg can pay 756 million euros.

Low attention

The fines appear to be largely due to a lack of ambition to actually read the GDPR. After all, 541 infringements are the result of an insufficient legal basis for the processing of European citizens’ data. In 425 cases, the GDPR principles were not sufficiently complied with and 318 fines went to companies that did not take sufficient measures to protect the data.

The numbers come from Proxyrack, which made a state of affairs. From this it can be concluded that the competent authorities are currently ensuring compliance with the GDPR. Every country imposes fines, and large companies that flout the rules face a bill that cannot be ignored.

Source: IT Daily

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