EU Commissioner Renews Call for Serious Fines in Data Privacy Laws

DW100 writes "Despite Google being fined €900,000 by Spanish authorities and €150,000 in France for its controversial privacy policies in recent months, an EU commissioner has admitted this is mere 'pocket money' to the company. Instead, a new legal regime that would have seen Google fined $1bn for breaching data protection laws is needed to make U.S. companies fear and respect the law in Europe. 'Is it surprising to anyone,' asked Commissioner Viviane Reding, 'that two whole years after the case emerged, it is still unclear whether Google will amend its privacy policy or not? Europeans need to get serious. And that is why our reform introduces stiff sanctions that can reach as much as 2% of the global annual turnover of a company. In the Google case, that would have meant a fine of EUR 731 million (USD 1 billion). A sum much harder to brush off.'"

Comments

Re:Hypocrites

[girlintraining]

The EU is also responsible for...

The entire reason for the EU was to try to show that Europe could compete with America economically. Naturally, they don't want to compete fairly... hence ginormous fines and byzantine rules to guarantee their application on a regular basis. Free market? Screw that. We're Europeans!

Re:Hypocrites

[girlintraining]

You're just plain wrong.
European companies are fined just as much for this kind of thing.

Citation needed. Please show me a European company that's been subjected to as much scrutiny as, say, Microsoft. Or show me a European company that's been fined as much as Google has. Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. We know about Microsoft and Google... but sadly, I don't think you'll find anyone who's heard of these amazingly large fines towards European IT companies. That might be because there aren't really any counterparts to Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc., in Europe. And maybe, just maybe, Europe would like to change that. Perhaps... with really big fines?

What I'm getting really tired of, is people who idiotically believe that a government won't act in its own economic best interests because that would go against whatever whack-ass worldview they have about their own country vis a vis all the other countries. I mean, it seems rather obvious, but nobody's national anthem is "We're Number Two!"