European privacy breach fine reaches $126 million total; Google paid $57 million: Report

European regulators have imposed 114 million euros ($126 million) in fines for data breaches since tougher privacy rules came into force in mid-2018, with approaches varying widely from country to country. A report by law firm DLA Piper said France has imposed the biggest single fine — of 50 million euros **against Google** — while the Netherlands, Britain and Germany led in terms of the number of data breach notifications. The **General Data Protection Regulation** was introduced in an effort to safeguard sensitive personal information and prescribes stiff penalties if companies lose control of data or process it without proper consent. (Also read: Qualcomm fined $271 million by the EU for 'predatory pricing' of its chips ) [caption id=“attachment_7935371” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Representational Image. Image: Reuters[/caption] It is enforced by a patchwork of national data protection offices across the 28-member European Union, with responsibility falling disproportionately on Ireland — the ‘lead’ regulator for Silicon Valley giants that have based their European operations there, such as Facebook. The fines to date pale in comparison to multibillion-euro penalties imposed in EU anti-trust cases , but they are likely to rise over time as appeals and litigation subject the sanctions to scrutiny and create legal precedents. In principle, regulators can impose fines of 2 percent or, in some cases 4 percent, of global turnover. In practice, they will have to judge whether such a heavy penalty would stand up in court, said DLA Piper partner Ross McKean. “It’s going to take time – the regulators are going to be wary about going to 4 percent because they are going to get appealed,” McKean told Reuters. “And you lose credibility as a regulator if you’re blown up on appeal.” The largest single penalty threatened so far has been in Britain, where the regulator has **proposed a fine of 183 million pounds** ($239 million) against British Airways owner IAG over the theft of data of half a million customers.