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Ireland ranked sixth for total number of data breaches in the past year
Fines imposed under the General Data Protection Regulation have increased by almost a half over the past year as European authorities flexed their regulatory muscles despite disruption caused by the pandemic.
According to research by DLA Piper, Ireland imposed €715,000 for GDPR breaches since the introduction of the regulations in 2018, ranking it in 14th place. However, it came sixth overall in terms of number of data breaches in the past year, with more than 6,600 incidents reported to authorities.
A total of €272 million has been levied in GDPR fines by European data protection authorities. Over half of those penalties were imposed by Italy and Germany. Almost €160 million of those fines were imposed in the past 12 months, an increase of nearly 40 per cent on the first 20-month period after GDPR came into force.
Limits
“Regulators have been testing the limits of their powers this year, issuing fines for a wide variety of infringements of Europe’s tough data protection laws,” said Ewa Kurowska-Tober, global co-chair of DLA Piper’s Data Protection & Security Group.
“Closer to home, the Data Protection Commission has flexed its muscles by issuing fines against domestic organisations as well as a large technology company. As lead regulator for many international businesses, and with a large volume of inquiries underway, the DPC is likely to issue further sanctions as 2021 progresses.”
The largest fine imposed under GDPR so far came from the French data protection authority, the CNIL. In 2019, it issued a €50 million fine against Google, saying that the tech group had failed to be transparent on how data were used and that it lacked a legal basis for personalising advertisements.
Other sectors that have been hit with large fines include retail, hospitality, telecoms and oil.
Germany and the Netherlands have had the most notifications from companies that suffered data breaches. The total of 121,165 notifications over the past year represents an increase of nearly 20 per cent compared with the same period from 2019-20.
However, the enforcement of GDPR in Europe has not been without hurdles.
“[Regulators] certainly haven’t …
