Amazon Is Fined A Record $886 Million Fine For Privacy Violations By The EU.

Amazon’s $100 billion quarter has become a bit sour since the company hit a record 746 million euro ($886 million) penalty for violating the EU’s privacy rules.

In response to Amazon’s regulatory filing, the announcement was made on July 16 by Luxembourg’s data protection authority CNPD, which alleged that Amazon’s processing of personal data did not comply with the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) rules.

“We believe the CNPD’s decision is without merit and intend to vigorously defend ourselves,” Amazon said in the filing.

Amazon claims that the CNPD’s decision also includes “practice revisions,” though it’s unclear what these are.

According to Bloomberg, the decision results from a probe started in 2018 by French privacy rights group La Quadrature du Net.

“It’s a good step to see a fine that’s dissuasive, but we need to remain vigilant and see if the decision includes an injunction to correct the infringing behavior,” a member of the group’s litigation team told Bloomberg.

It would be the heaviest fine ever imposed for a violation of EU GDPR regulations. The GDPR is a wide-ranging set of rules which specify how companies operating within the European Union should handle users’ private data. Before this, the most significant penalty imposed for violating GDPR was to Google, which was fined $57 million in January 2019.