Impressive increase of penalties for violation of the GDPR . In 2021, fines for violating privacy cost companies 1.1 billion euros , compared to 272.5 million in 2020. This was revealed by the law firm DlaPiper in its annual report “General data protection regulation (Gdpr) fines and data breach survey” conducted in EU countries plus UK, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
At the top of the ranking of the most “strict” countries is Luxembourg , thanks to the fine of 746 million euros (European record) imposed on Amazon . Italy in third place (from first place in 2020). The report also highlights an increase of 8% in data leaks , with Germany in first place for total complaints, while Holland takes the scepter for the number of complaints compared to the population (150.7 per 100,000 inhabitants).
The report also highlights a serious problem related to the sentence Shrems II , which invalidated the Privacy Shield , which regulates the transfer of personal information between EU and United States . As many companies and administrations transfer their data to overseas servers, this has opened a worrying regulatory vacuum , with the risk of fines, compensation claims and even a complete blocking of the transfer. We hope that the European authorities will rush to resolve this issue.
