LONDON (Dispatches) - Amazon has been hit with an $886.6mn fine for allegedly breaking European Union data protection laws.
The fine was issued by Luxembourg’s National Commission for Data Protection, which claimed the tech giant’s processing of personal data did not comply with EU law.
Amazon said it believed the fine to be “without merit”, adding that it would defend itself “vigorously”.
A spokeswoman said there had been “no data breach”.
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules requires companies to seek people’s consent before using their personal data or face steep fines.
Luxembourg’s data protection authority, also known as Commission Nationale pour la Protection des Données (CNPD), issued the fine to Amazon on 16 July, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing by the company on Friday.
In response, Amazon said: “We believe the CNPD’s decision to be without merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter.”
The fine comes following rising regulatory scrutiny of large tech companies due to concerns over privacy and misinformation, as well as complaints from some businesses that the tech giants have abused their market power.
The Wall Street Journal reported in June that Amazon could be fined more than $425mn under the European Union’s privacy law.
Amazon is by no means the first large company to fall foul of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but this fine is the largest there has been since the law came into effect in 2018 - and by a very significant margin.