Amazon considers appeal after court sides with regulator on record privacy fine

Amazon has said it is considering an appeal against a decision of a Luxembourg national Court which upheld a record privacy fine of €746 million euro imposed on the tech giant, a spokesperson for the company told Euronews. Amazon now has 40 days to decide on the appeal.

The case goes back to a fine issued by the Luxembourg Data Protection Authority (CNPD) in 2021 against Amazon for violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for failing to ask for consent of data processing of online users, against which Amazon appealed.

The Administrative Court of Luxembourg rejected Amazon's appeal and confirmed the CNPD's initial decision, the watchdog said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

The privacy regulator said that the effects of the CNPD's decision remain suspended during the appeal period and, where applicable, during any appeal proceedings before the Administrative Court.

A spokesperson for Amazon said that: “Despite our best efforts to engage constructively on the proper interpretation of new and untested provisions of European privacy law, the CNPD’s decision instead imposed an unprecedented fine based on subjective interpretations of the law about which they had not previously published any interpretive guidance.” 

The GDPR entered into force in 2018.

Besides the Amazon fine, Meta faced the biggest penalty issued to any company: €1.2 billion. The company also appealed.