Dutch privacy watchdog fines Uber €825m over drivers’ rights

The Dutch data protection authority AP has fined Uber €825 million for deactivating drivers’ accounts through automated systems without properly informing them, in what is the second-largest penalty ever issued under European privacy law.

The watchdog leads on privacy oversight of Uber across the EU because the company’s European head office is in Amsterdam.

Under the EU’s data protection rules, companies are not allowed to let an algorithm alone take decisions that significantly affect someone’s life. A human must be involved, and the person affected must be able to object.

The case relates to events between 2020 and 2022 and began with complaints from drivers in France, who had been suspended on suspicion of fraud, such as taking unnecessary detours to increase their fares.

Uber to appeal
Uber said it would challenge the fine. “We strongly disagree with this decision and disproportionate fine,” a spokesperson told Reuters, adding that the company took drivers’ rights seriously.

The firm said its current policies included human review and allowed drivers to contest suspensions, and that it no longer deactivated accounts permanently through automated systems alone.

The penalty easily exceeds the AP’s previous record, a €290 million fine imposed on Uber last year for transferring drivers’ data to the United States.

That case, which Uber is also appealing, grew out of the same complaints by French drivers. The regulator had already fined the company €10 million in early 2024 over drivers’ privacy rights and €600,000 in 2018.

The only larger fine under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the €1.2 billion penalty handed to Meta by Ireland’s regulator in 2023, for transferring European Facebook users’ data to the United States, a case that Meta is appealing.