Amazon was fined 746 million euros for allegedly violating European data privacy regulations, or 885 million U.S. dollars at the current exchange rate.
The company disclosed its decision on July 16 Luxembourg National Data Protection Commission (CNPD) In the 10Q file filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday morning.
The decision has not been made public, but according to Amazon’s documents, CNPD found that the company’s “processing of personal data does not comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation.”
The company stated in the document: “We believe that the CNPD’s decision is baseless and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.”
The commission’s investigation began with a complaint by the French privacy organization La Quadrature du Net in 2018. According to Bloomberg News. A member of the class action team told the news agency, “This is the first step to see a dissuasive fine, but we need to be vigilant to see if the decision also includes an injunction to correct the infringement.”
Amazon believes that any infringement needs to be corrected.
“Maintaining the security of our customer information and their trust is the top priority. There is no data leakage, and no customer data is exposed to any third parties,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “These facts are indisputable. We strongly disagree with the CNPD’s ruling and we intend to appeal. The decision on how we display relevant advertisements to customers depends on subjective and untested interpretations of European privacy laws, and the proposed fines It’s even out of proportion to this explanation.”