ALBAWABA - Not for the first time, Uber has violated the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the tune of $966 million for automatically deactivating drivers in Europe.
According to the Dutch Data Protection Authority, Uber deprived its drivers of income through fully automatic decision making which violates the GDPR.
The investigation into the matter began when 171 French drivers reported Uber for this to a local human rights organization – leading to the Dutch Data Protection Authority to take over the case as Uber’s headquarters are located in the Netherlands.
The Dutch data authority accused Uber of automatically deactivating driver accounts between 2018 and 2022 without human intervention, demanding a nearly $1 billion fine.
"From one moment to the next, they no longer had any income through Uber," Monique Verdier, deputy chair of the Dutch authority, said of the drivers who initiated the complaint. "A computer should not make decisions on its own that have major consequences for you."
This isn’t the first time the authority fines Uber, having previously fined it for $701,000 in 2018 and $11.6 million in 2023 and again a year later in 2024 for $339 million.
