Google's $2.73 Billion Fine Demonstrates Importance of GDPR Compliance

By Kevin Townsend in Security Week on June 27, 2017

Not everyone thinks that this anti-trust fine will provide a benchmark for future GDPR fines. Dr Monica Horten, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, stresses the fundamental difference between the laws. "With this Google fine," she said, "this is a corporation abusing its dominant market position. The underlying motivation is about deliberately seeking to gain market advantage, and simultaneously disadvantaging its competitors. It was a deliberate, proactive move to cut out competition.

"GDPR fines," she continued, "will be imposed by national regulators responsible for data protection in Member States. The GDPR gives national regulators a range of measures they can take before they resort to a fine. With GDPR, the root is more likely to lie in some form of corporate management failure, either through neglect or making false economies and cost-cutting."