{"id":600605,"date":"2026-08-21T22:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T22:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/600605\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T22:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T22:24:12","slug":"dutch-regulator-fines-uber-966m-for-automating-driver-suspensions-uber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/600605\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch regulator fines Uber $966m for automating driver suspensions | Uber"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dutch data protection authority has fined \u2060Uber \u20ac825m ($966m) for deactivating driver \u2060accounts through automated systems without \u200badequately informing them, according to a 17 August decision.<\/p>\n

The penalty would be the second-largest issued yet under Europe\u2019s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).<\/p>\n

It is behind only a \u20ac1.2bn ($1.4bn) fine \u2060imposed on Meta<\/a> by Ireland in 2023 for unlawfully transferring European Facebook users\u2019 data to the United States. Meta is appealing.<\/p>\n

Uber said it would also appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly disagree with this decision and disproportionate fine,\u201d a spokesperson \u2060said, adding that the company takes drivers\u2019 rights seriously and its policies include both human reviews and opportunities for drivers to dispute platform suspensions.<\/p>\n

The Dutch \u200bauthority confirmed the decision later on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cUber has committed \u200cserious infringements\u201d by deactivating driver accounts without \u200cwarning or human involvement, the organization\u2019s deputy chair Monique Verdier said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom one moment to the next they no longer \u200chad any income \u2026 A computer should not make decisions on its own that have (such) major consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

European regulators have imposed billions of euros in penalties on large US technology companies in recent years under privacy, competition and digital market rules. The EU fined Google \u20ac890m ($1.04bn) for anti-competitive actions last month.<\/p>\n

Meta, Google, Apple and Amazon all face multiple fines, though headline fines are often reduced or reversed after years-long appeals processes. Donald Trump has criticized such fines. In April, a US state department official said they were the \u201cbiggest \u200csingle source of friction\u201d in US-EU economic relations.<\/p>\n

GDPR rules ban decisions made solely by computer algorithms when they have a significant impact on people\u2019s lives, such as on employment, saying such decisions require meaningful human review and a way to challenge a \u200bdecision.<\/p>\n

The case against Uber concerns European incidents from 2018 to 2022, stemming initially from a French complaint. It was handled by the Dutch regulator because Uber\u2019s European headquarters are in the Netherlands<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Uber temporarily suspended accounts of some drivers who were suspected of fraud, including when its systems concluded drivers had taken unnecessary detours to inflate fares or accepted trips without intending to complete them.<\/p>\n

Uber said such suspensions were usually brief, and it did not \u2060permanently deactivate such accounts without human review.<\/p>\n

Drivers with low customer ratings were sometimes permanently deactivated by \u200bcomputer, the Dutch agency said. Uber disputed that, \u200bsaying it had never automated permanent deactivation decisions.<\/p>\n

The \u200bcompany said one reason it considers the fine disproportionate is that only a small number of drivers were affected, \u200bwith 126 having been deactivated \u200cin Europe as a \u200bresult of low customer ratings in \u200b2021.<\/p>\n

The agency said the fine was calculated as a fraction of Uber\u2019s 2025 annual turnover. Swiss digital-rights group PersonalData.IO \u2013 which helped French Uber drivers seek data about the algorithmic decisions affecting their work, eventually leading to the Dutch investigation \u2013 said it was pleased with the decision. Founder Paul-Olivier Dehaye said the group is preparing a class action suit against Uber seeking compensation for drivers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dutch data protection authority has fined \u2060Uber \u20ac825m ($966m) for deactivating driver \u2060accounts through automated systems without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-600605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}