Big tech lawyer to chair Dutch privacy watchdog AP

Geert Potjewijd, a corporate lawyer who spent decades defending big tech companies like Meta and TikTok against privacy claims, will become chair of the Dutch data protection authority AP from August 1.

The AP is the independent regulator that checks whether companies and government bodies handle people’s personal data properly, and since 2023 it has also been the Netherlands’ supervisor for algorithms and artificial intelligence.

The cabinet approved the appointment on the recommendation of Claudia van Bruggen, the justice and security state secretary. The five-year term can be renewed once. Potjewijd succeeds Aleid Wolfsen, who chaired the AP for ten years.

Potjewijd spent 27 years at the Amsterdam law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, where he was co-head of the data protection and cybersecurity practice and previously chaired the firm’s board.

At De Brauw he represented private companies against the kind of mass privacy claims and regulatory enforcement the AP works on. He acted for TikTok and its Chinese parent company in a case brought on behalf of four million Dutch users seeking damages for privacy breaches; no payout followed.

He also represented Uber, and in 2021 defended the US software firms Oracle and Salesforce against a class action alleging they had secretly gathered data on large numbers of Dutch people through cookies.

An Amsterdam court declared that case inadmissible, but an appeal court overturned the ruling, and the Supreme Court must now decide whether it can proceed.

Record fines

The AP has issued some of its largest penalties in recent years. It fined Uber €290m in 2024 for unlawfully transferring driver data to the United States, the highest fine the authority has ever imposed, and €100m to the company behind taxi app Yango for storing data on Russian servers.

In a statement, the AP’s deputy chair Monique Verdier said Potjewijd “literally brings the outside world in” and pointed to his motivation to strengthen human rights and protect democracy.

Potjewijd said the digital society and the growth of AI affected everyone, and that the AP had an important role to play as regulator.