Penalties for breach of data protection

How many penalties have been imposed for breach of data protection?

Have you ever wanted to know how many penalties are imposed for breach of data protection? Of which amounts? Which country fines the most?

Thanks to the this website, we can keep track of the list of all sanctions for breach of data protection: 

Penalties imposed for breach of data protection: Total collected and the highest fines

Since July 2018, when the first €400,000 fine was imposed for breach of data protection, the total number of fines and money collected has never ceased to grow. This past September, the accumulated total amount collected over these 3 years was (wait for it…) €1,278.5M, over a total of 793 fines, representing an average penalty of approximately €1.6M per fine (a totally misleading figure because most are relatively low).

penalties for breach of data protection
Summary of the total fines imposed and the amount accumulated.

If you look at this by month, you can see that the month with the highest collection was last July, when €755M was collected over 47 fines, mainly due to the €746 million fine that the Luxembourg Agency (CNPD) imposed on Amazon.

penalties for breach of data protection
Number of fines and amount in euros per month
penalties for breach of data protection
Total number of fines per month and amount received in recent months

Strangely enough, this September was the second month in history with the highest collection, with a total of 226 million, due to the €225M fine that the Irish agency imposed on WhatsApp. These two are the highest sanctions in history, followed by one imposed in France on Google.

Total fines by country

Regarding total sanctions collected by country, the countries to have collected the most, obviously due to the aforementioned fines, are Luxembourg (746M) and Ireland (225M), over a total of 11 and 9 fines, respectively. The third is Italy, which has collected 86 million euros but, unlike the previous countries, has collected them over a total of 92 fines. Spain is in 7th position with €32.8M euros collected.

Ranking of countries by the total amount collected in fines.
Ranking of countries by the total amount collected in fines.

Finally, Spain is the country with the highest number of sanctions imposed, with a total of 291 fines! This means that a lot of small fines are imposed. The second country in number of fines is Italy, which, as said, has a total of 92 fines, which is a difference of almost 200 sanctions! Romania stands third with 62 fines, but with only 700,000 euros collected.

Ranking of countries by total fines imposed
Ranking of countries by total fines imposed

If you are curious and want to know more about this list or any other topic, do not hesitate to contact us!


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