UK GDPR Fines ‘Highest In Europe’

The UK has imposed the highest fines for breaches of the GDPR legislation of any country in Europe.

That’s according to figures from BuyShares, with TechRound publishing the figures and noting that the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has imposed fines of €132.7 million in total for data protection breaches.

This is more than the total penalties issued by Germany and Italy combined, the news provider added.

It also pointed out that one of the reasons why the UK’s figures were so high was due to a particularly hefty fine levied on Marriott International, after a cyber incident exposed almost 340 million guests’ records. As a result of this incident, the ICO imposed a €110.4 million fine.

In total, GDPR fines across Europe stood at €344 million, although there are more fines for some high-profile companies that have been issued more recently. In the UK, British Airways (BA) has been hit with a €22 million penalty, for instance, while clothing firm H&M Hennes & Mauritz Online Shop was fined €35.2 million this month.

Earlier in October, IT Pro Portal shared the findings of research conducted by Exonar, which found that 39 per cent of GDPR fines issued in the EU were as a result of insufficient security. This was behind the BA fine, in addition to those levied on the likes of DSK Bank and Active Assurances.

Meanwhile, over one-quarter of fines were for unsecured and over-retained data. Marriott, as well as Deutsche Wohnen and 1&1 Telecom, were penalised for this offence.

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