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The Dutch data protection watchdog slapped a 290 million euro ($324 million) fine Monday on ride-hailing service Uber<\/a> for allegedly transferring personal details of European drivers to the United States without adequate protection. Uber called the decision flawed and unjustified and said it would appeal.<\/p>\n The Dutch Data Protection Authority said the data transfers spanning more than two years amounted to a serious breach of the European Union\u2019s General Data Protection Regulation, which requires technical and organizational measures aimed at protecting user data.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Europe, the GDPR protects the fundamental rights of people, by requiring businesses and governments to handle personal data with due care,\u201d Dutch DPA chairman Aleid Wolfsen said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cBut sadly, this is not self-evident outside Europe. Think of governments that can tap data on a large scale. That is why businesses are usually obliged to take additional measures if they store personal data of Europeans outside the European Union. Uber did not meet the requirements of the GDPR to ensure the level of protection to the data with regard to transfers to the U.S. That is very serious.\u201d<\/p>\n The case was initiated by complaints from 170 French Uber drivers, but the Dutch authority issued the fine because Uber\u2019s European headquarters is in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n Uber insisted it did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cThis flawed decision and extraordinary fine are completely unjustified. Uber\u2019s cross-border data transfer process was compliant with GDPR during a 3-year period of immense uncertainty between the EU and U.S. We will appeal and remain confident that common sense will prevail,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n The alleged breach came after the\u00a0EU\u2019s top court ruled<\/a>\u00a0in 2020 that an agreement known as Privacy Shield that allowed thousands of companies \u2014 from tech giants to small financial firms \u2014 to transfer data to the United States was invalid because the American government could snoop on people\u2019s data.<\/p>\n The Dutch data protection agency said that following the EU court ruling, standard clauses in contracts could provide a basis for transferring data outside the EU, \u201cbut only if an equivalent level of protection can be guaranteed in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause Uber no longer used Standard Contractual Clauses from August 2021, the data of drivers from the EU were insufficiently protected,\u201d the watchdog said. It added that Uber has been using the successor to Privacy Shield since the end of last year, ending the alleged breach.<\/p>\n The Computer & Communications Industry Association, an advocacy organization for tech companies, said the fine ignored the realities of online business in the aftermath of the 2020 EU court ruling.<\/p>\n \u201cThe busiest internet route in the world could not simply be put on hold for three entire years while governments worked to establish a new legal framework for these data flows,\u201d the association\u2019s European head of policy, Alexandre Roure, said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cAny retroactive fines by data protection authorities are especially worrisome given that these very privacy watchdogs failed to provide helpful guidance during this period of significant legal uncertainty, in absence of any clear legal framework,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s announcement is not the first time the Dutch data protection watchdog has fined Uber. In January, the agency fined it 10 million euros over what it said was the company\u2019s failure to disclose how long it retained data from drivers in Europe or to name non-EU countries it shared the data with.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nRecommended Newsletter: <\/strong>High-level insights for high-powered executives. Subscribe to the CEO Daily newsletter for free today. Subscribe now<\/a>.<\/div>\n