IT Home, August 22 — According to Reuters, a court ruling document dated August 17 shows that the Dutch Data Protection Authority has imposed a hefty fine of €825 million (IT Home note: about RMB 6.492 billion at the current exchange rate) on Uber. The penalty was imposed because Uber, through automated systems, blocked drivers’ accounts and did not provide drivers with adequate notice.

This fine will become the second-largest in history issued since the implementation of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Only the €1.2 billion fine (about RMB 9.443 billion at the current exchange rate) issued in 2023 by Ireland for Meta’s unlawful transfer of European Facebook users’ data to the United States is larger. Meta is currently appealing the decision.

Uber also said it would appeal. A company spokesperson said, “We strongly oppose this ruling and the excessively high amount of the penalty.” He added that the company has always placed great importance on drivers’ rights, and that the current policy not only includes manual review procedures but also provides drivers with a channel to appeal bans of their accounts.

Late Friday evening, the Dutch data protection regulator confirmed the penalty decision. In a statement, the regulator’s deputy chair, Monique Verdier, said: “Uber unilaterally banned drivers’ accounts without prior warning and without any human intervention, which constitutes a serious violation.”

“Drivers lose all their income in an instant… Decisions that have such major impacts must never be made solely by computers.”

This case concerns alleged violations by Uber in Europe between 2018 and 2022, which began with a complaint submitted by a French driver. Because Uber’s European headquarters is in the Netherlands, the case was ultimately handled, led by the Dutch regulator.

Previously, Uber had taken temporary ban measures against some drivers’ accounts suspected of fraud—for example, when the system determined that a driver was intentionally taking detours to raise the fare, or when a driver accepted trips but then had no intention of fulfilling them. Uber explained that such bans typically last for a very short time and, without human intervention for review, would never permanently disable the relevant accounts.

But Dutch regulators said that some drivers with low customer ratings were indeed permanently banned directly by the computer system. Uber denied this, insisting that the company has never fully automated decisions to impose permanent bans.

Uber also said one reason the penalty is so unreasonable is that very few drivers were affected— in 2021, only 126 drivers across all of Europe were banned for having scores that were too low.

The Dutch regulator added that the fine was calculated strictly according to a certain percentage of Uber’s 2025 global annual revenue.