GDPR rakes in $126 million in fines

The European data privacy regulation came into effect in May of 2018 and it has been reported by DLA Piper that since GDPR came into effect 160,000 notifications of data breach have come under the new regulation.

It is being reported that since the GDPR came to force the EU’s overhaul of data privacy regulation has generated $126 million (114 million euros) in fines. Ross McKean, a partner at DLA Piper commented that the fines are not surprising.

Under the GDPR, the French watchdog CNIL fined the biggest fine till now. It fined Google 50 million euros last year due to transparency and consent issues. The regulation dictates that a company can be fined 20 million euros or up to 4% of their annual revenues if someone is observed to flout the GDPR rules.

2020 will be an interesting year for GDPR. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission is carrying out multiple investigations into GDPR violations including big companies like Facebook and Apple.

McKean has said that it is still early days for the GDPR fines. He further said that the total amount of fines of $126 million (114 million euros) imposed is relatively low. As more investigations complete in due course, the figure will only rise. Security and safety have never been more important and GDPR seems to be acting as a great enforcer for now.