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Data Protection Commission fines Google €403M over processing of location datadataprotection.ie

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) has today announced its final decision following an Inquiry into Google Ireland Limited (“Google”).

79 points•DeepLogin•9 days ago•39 comments•
#data#google#protection#commission#protection commission#data protection#fines#403m

39 comments

john_strinlai9 days ago
for perspective, €403M = ~30 hours of net income, or ~10 hours of revenue (based on 2025 numbers, current exchange rates).
jiggawatts9 days ago
There was a lot of noise a few years back about Meta getting billion-euro fines over GDPR violations.

I looked it up: they paid almost none of the fines.

If you get a ticket from a speed camera, the government will garnish your wages if you don’t pay the fine. For trillion dollar organisations payment is apparently optional.

rob-lag9 days ago
> they paid almost none of the fines.

Source?

noworld9 days ago
Do they only fine American companies in Europe?
buzer9 days ago
No. For example:

https://www.enforcementtracker.com/ETid-3171 Yangoo. UAE.

https://www.enforcementtracker.com/ETid-1912 Criteo. French.

https://www.enforcementtracker.com/ETid-3162 Intesa Sanpaolo. Italian.

https://www.enforcementtracker.com/ETid-2864 Shein. Chinese.

https://www.enforcementtracker.com/ETid-2306 Enel Energia. Italian.

American companies fines tend to be highest since they are biggest and revenue affects the fine amount.

xethos9 days ago
A European-only, or even one that only primarily serves Europeans, likely won't make it to the front page as easily on the moderately American-centric HN - which further makes it seem like the only companies getting sued in the EU are American
coldtea9 days ago
Depends. Do you go and read European news about such cases, or just check HN when they post about a FAANG EU fine?
noworld9 days ago
Pretty much the latter.
tremon9 days ago
No, they also fine American companies in China and in Australia.
t0mpr1c39 days ago
Plus Canada and Japan.
profsummergig9 days ago
Someone recently fined Facebook $17 Billion. It was on the front page of NYT for 6 days (like as if it was a huge "get").

About 1% of FB's market cap. And their sins get washed away.

Everybody wins.

At this rate, fining tech-cos will be a major source of revenue for governments. Everybody wins.

kingcauchy9 days ago
It's like taxes with extra steps, except you get taxed for someone polluting you!
agos9 days ago
Fines like these are not an absolution though
jacquesm9 days ago
Except for the consumers of course, but who cares about them.
Havoc9 days ago
They don’t seem to be getting the message that companies need to comply with laws of the country they operate in.

Maybe start adding zeroes until it sinks in…

bobmarleybiceps9 days ago
it's depressing how small google's / meta's fines are. should be a % of revenue or total stock valuation or something.
autoexec9 days ago
That % should increase substantially with each violation too. It's hard to make fines hurt when the corporation you want to punish has more money than most countries.

Read the full thread on Hacker News →

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