The Netherlands has hit ride-hailing company Uber with an €825m fine after finding that the platform deactivated drivers’ accounts without telling them why, adding to a growing list of European regulatory actions against the company.
A spokesperson for the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) confirmed the judgment today. The decision had been agreed on Monday, but the authority declined to provide further details.
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Regulators based the penalty on European data-protection rules that prohibit people from being “subject to a decision based solely on automated processing.” Uber had used automated systems in the account deactivations at issue.
If upheld, the fine would rank as the second-largest ever imposed under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation. It would trail only the €1.2 billion penalty Ireland imposed on Meta in 2023 over the unlawful transfer of European Facebook users’ data to the United States. Meta is appealing that decision.
The case was handled in the Netherlands because Uber’s European headquarters are located in Amsterdam.
“We strongly disagree with this decision and disproportionate fine,” an Uber spokesperson said, stressing that the company takes drivers’ rights seriously. The spokesperson added that Uber’s current policies provide for human reviews and give drivers ways to challenge suspensions from the platform.
Uber adopted a similar stance two years ago, when Dutch authorities imposed a €290m fine over the transfer of European taxi drivers’ personal data to the United States, which regulators said breached EU rules.
“This flawed decision and extraordinary fine are completely unjustified,” Uber spokesperson Caspar Nixon said at the time.
In recent years, European regulators have levied billions of euros in penalties against major US technology companies under privacy, competition and digital-market laws. Meta, Google, Apple and Amazon have each faced multiple fines.
Yet the headline figures attached to such cases are frequently reduced or overturned following appeals that can take years to resolve.
