Uber has been hit with an €825m fine in the Netherlands over the way it deactivated drivers’ accounts without telling them, marking the latest European ruling scrutinising the ride-hailing firm’s practices under EU rules.
A spokesperson for the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) confirmed the decision on Wednesday, saying the judgement had been agreed on Monday, but declined to provide further details.
Regulators grounded the ruling in European data protections that say individuals should not “be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing” — the mechanism authorities say was used to switch off drivers’ access to the platform.
If it stands, the sanction would rank as the second-largest ever issued under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. The only bigger GDPR penalty to date is the €1.2bn fine Ireland imposed on Meta in 2023 over the unlawful transfer of European Facebook users’ data to the United States, a decision Meta is appealing.
The Uber case concerns incidents in Europe spanning 2020 to 2022 and traces back to a complaint lodged in France.
It was handled in the Netherlands because Uber’s European headquarters are based in Amsterdam.
“We strongly disagree with this decision and disproportionate fine,” an Uber spokesperson said. The company said it takes drivers’ rights seriously and that its current approach includes human reviews as well as avenues for drivers to contest suspensions from the platform.
Uber struck a similar tone two years ago after Dutch authorities imposed a €290m fine for transferring European taxi drivers’ personal data to the US in breach of EU requirements.
“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 tech firms using privacy, competition and digital market rules, with Meta, Google, Apple and Amazon among those repeatedly targeted.
Yet the biggest headline figures often shrink — or disappear entirely — after appeals processes that can stretch on for years.
