US e-commerce giant Amazon has faced the biggest ever European Union privacy fine. It turned out that the company’s processing of personal data did not comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Amazon came under scrutiny by the Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD). During the course of an investigation, Amazon was found to have made several violations when processing personal data. Having looked at the investigation report, the Commission concluded that Amazon's processing of personal data did not comply with the EU's GDPR. As a result, the company was hit with a record €746 million ($886.6 million) fine.
Luxembourg’s watchdog did not stop there and demanded that the US company review its personal data collection policy. Amazon said that CNPD’s decision was without merit. The company is planning to appeal the fine. The e-commerce behemoth noted that customer data has never been shared with third parties. After the news broke, Amazon shares plunged by 7.14% during the opening hours on the NASDAQ exchange. The tech giant’s revenue for the fiscal year that ended on March 31 was $26.9 billion. In the first quarter of 2021, the company earned $8.1 billion.
