Netherlands Imposes Record €290 Million Fine on Uber for Transferring Data on European Drivers to US

The Dutch data protection regulator has imposed a record-breaking €290 million fine on the taxi service Uber. The reason is non-compliance with the requirements of European legislation on the protection of driver data, namely its transfer to the United States.

This is reported by NOS.

The regulator stated that the company, which has its European headquarters in the Netherlands, had no right to transfer data of European drivers using the service, including geolocation information, photos, transaction details, IDs, etc. to its headquarters in the United States.

Such driver data was transferred to the US for more than two years ‘without adequate protection of personal information’. 

This is a past violation, as Uber has responded to the comments and changed its approach since the end of 2023.

The company said it will appeal the fine and is ready to go to court, as it considers it undeserved and unfair. An Uber spokesperson said that the company itself had contacted the regulator about unclear details of the rules, and at the time, the agency did not say that Uber's practices violated anything. 

The fine is the result of an investigation that began after a collective complaint by more than 170 French drivers to the relevant French regulator, which then referred the case to colleagues in the Netherlands, as Uber's European headquarters is located there. 

The previous ‘record’ fine of the Dutch regulator also went to Uber, which amounted to €10 million. The company was punished for the lack of clear information on how long the data of European drivers is stored. 

In 2018, Uber was fined €600,000 in the Netherlands for delaying the notification of a data breach.