Amazon does not want to accept a fine of 746 million
Amazon has stress in Europe. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Luxembourg has fined Amazon € 746 million for violating the GDPR. The US company sees it differently and wants to appeal against the judgment.
The Luxembourg data protection authority CNPD (Commission Nationale pour la Protection des Données) accuses Amazon of violating the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with its data processing. As a result, the CNPD imposed a fine of 746 million euros on the US company and asked Amazon to change some of its business practices. It is not known exactly what these are.
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GDPR penalty: Amazon wants to appoint
The corresponding verdict had actually already been pronounced on July 16, but only now became known because Amazon disclosed this in its quarterly report. Luxembourg is responsible in this case because Amazon’s European subsidiary is based there. Meanwhile, Amazon assures that it has not violated the GDPR. There was no data theft and no data was leaked to third parties, the US company assured opposite CNBC.
And further: “We expressly do not agree with the judgment of the CNPD and intend to appeal,” said Amazon. The decision of the CNPD is based on subjective and unchecked interpretations of European data protection law. However, even with this interpretation, the fine in the room is out of all proportion, according to Amazon.
The Amazon share collapsed on Friday. In the first hours of trading on the Nasdaq, there was a minus of around seven percent. The paper is currently trading at around $ 3,350. But this is not (only) due to the judgment of the data protection authority. Rather, the stock exchange traders were disappointed with the quarterly figures – even though Amazon was able to increase both profits and sales significantly. Nevertheless, the biggest decline since the corona crash in March 2020 threatens the stock market.
In the past second quarter, Amazon increased sales by 27 percent to 113 billion dollars. The e-commerce group was therefore unable to meet the growth rate of the same quarter of the previous year or the expectations of the analysts. That looked a little more positive for net income ($ 7.8 billion). However, the outlook for the coming months was probably the most disappointing. The turnover should be between 106 and 112 billion dollars. Analysts had previously expected $ 118 billion like that Handelsblatt writes.
