AIBRIEF
The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) fines Uber under GDPR Article 22, the EU's rule against automated only decisions with major effects, after the company let software alone pull 171 drivers off the platform.
On Tuesday, the Dutch Data Protection Authority fined Uber €825 million, about $962 million, for letting an algorithm, not a human, decide when 171 drivers lost access to the platform. The penalty, the second-largest GDPR fine ever issued, is the first major test of Article 22, the EU's rule against automated-only decisions with significant effects on individuals, against a gig platform.
The case covers Uber's European business from 2018 through 2022, when software flagged drivers for behaviors including unnecessary detours to inflate fares and accepting rides they did not intend to complete. Suspensions could arrive without a person on Uber's side ever reading the file. The Dutch AP led the investigation because Uber's main European establishment sits in the Netherlands, and the complaint itself was filed in 2020 by La Ligue des Droits de l'Homme, the French human-rights group, on the drivers' behalf. A parallel French CNIL complaint is also active.
Uber says it will appeal, calling the fine disproportionate. The company argues that fraud-related suspensions were short-lived and that permanent account deactivations had human review. The Dutch AP's finding is that whatever review existed was not the meaningful human check Article 22 requires. The question is what "human review" has to look like when an algorithm can end a worker's livelihood. Every gig platform is now watching that fight.