RGPD: Nearly 2 billion euros in fines in Europe

If, as you probably know the RGPD allows for fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of the organization's annual turnover, it is important to realize that these fines are not theoretical. 

Indeed, in July 2022, when the RGPD is four years old, the total fines in Europe is 1, 8 billion euros.

Nearly 1,200 fines have been imposed across Europe.

If the mandates that the press talks about are those imposed on large organizations, individuals and small structures are not spared, even if these fines are not necessarily published. The number of fines for this sector has doubled in 2021!

Fines have been imposed for various aspects of non-compliance, ranging from insufficient technical and organizational measures to non-compliant information to data subjects.

For the smaller data controllers - i.e., sole proprietors and individuals - the data protection authorities apparently paid particular attention to the extent to which the breach was foreseeable by the data subject and the purpose of the processing activity in question. Of particular importance was the number of data subjects and the intention of the violator to pursue economic interests through unlawful data processing.  

Almost half of all fines in this sector were related to video surveillance, including dashcams in private vehicles.

The data protection authorities consider video surveillance to be a particularly risky form of processing, for which even private individuals must comply with strict requirements - especially if video surveillance is used in public places.

And so, if we sometimes hear SMEs, VSEs, associations and self-employed people say that fines in terms of RGPD are for large companies, they are wrong.

It doesn't just happen to others. 

Source