亚马逊因涉嫌违反欧盟数据保护法而被处以9亿美元罚款

发布时间: 2021-08-10

       罚款是由卢森堡国家数据保护委员会发出的，该委员会称这家科技巨头对个人数据的处理不符合欧盟法律。

       亚马逊表示，罚款是 “没有根据的”，并补充说将 "积极 "为自己辩护。一位亚马逊发言人告诉BBC，“亚马逊并没有数据泄露。”

       欧盟的《通用数据保护条例》（GDPR）规定，公司在使用人们的个人数据之前必须征得人们的同意，否则将面临巨额罚款。根据亚马逊周五提交的美国证券交易委员会（SEC）文件，卢森堡的数据保护机构，也被称为国家数据保护委员会（CNPD），于7月16日向亚马逊开出罚单。

       作为回应，亚马逊说：“我们认为CNPD的决定是没有道理的，并打算在这件事上为自己大力辩护。”

       由于民众对隐私和错误信息的担忧，以及一些企业抱怨科技巨头滥用其市场力量，政府对大型科技公司的监管审查不断加强，此次罚款也随之而来。

       《华尔街日报》在6月报道，根据欧盟的隐私法，亚马逊可能被罚款超过4.25亿美元。该条例对敏感数据的使用、存储或处理方式进行了严格限制。亚马逊绝不是第一个违反欧盟《通用数据保护条例》(GDPR)的大公司，但这次罚款是该法律在2018年生效以来最大的一次。虽然谷歌、英国航空公司、H&M和万豪酒店等公司都曾因违反隐私法而面临欧洲政府的处罚，但这些罚款通常只有几十美元。

       民众还不知道亚马逊到底做了什么才导致了如此严厉的处罚。然而，鉴于国家当局在决定处罚时要考虑到侵权行为的严重性、持续时间和性质，此次侵权必定是特别严重的。这也表明立法是有效应的--甚至像卢森堡这样在其他方面对美国跨国公司非常宽容的国家也愿意强硬地适用立法。

       但到目前为止，亚马逊的态度也相当强硬。亚马逊的一位女发言人说：“维护我们客户的信息安全和他们的信任是首要任务，”并补充，“没有数据泄露，也没有客户数据被暴露给任何第三方。这些事实是无可争议的。”她强调，该公司坚决不同意CNPD的裁决，并打算上诉。

包括亚马逊在内的美国科技巨头近年来一直被指责具有强大的 “垄断力量”，这促使民众不断呼吁对这些公司拥有的权力进行“约束”。

       此前，欧盟通常是围绕着亚马逊所能接触到的数据以及它如何使用这些数据而展开调查，比如第三方产品的敏感商业信息，包括数量和价格。而去年11月，欧盟委员会指控亚马逊滥用其在网上零售业的主导地位，以获得对竞争对手的不公平优势。同时，在今年5月，亚马逊赢得了一场诉讼，它曾被命令向卢森堡支付2.5亿欧元（2.15亿英镑）的税款。欧盟委员会曾命令这家科技巨头将这些资金作为补缴税款，称亚马逊获得了不公平的特殊待遇，但法院推翻了这一命令。

原文：

Amazon has been hit with an $886.6m (£636m) fine for allegedly breaking European Union data protection laws.

The fine was issued by Luxembourg's National Commission for Data Protection, which claimed the tech giant's processing of personal data did not comply with EU law.

Amazon said it believed the fine to be "without merit", adding that it would defend itself "vigorously".

A spokeswoman told the BBC there had been "no data breach".

The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules requires companies to seek people's consent before using their personal data or face steep fines.

Luxembourg's data protection authority, also known as Commission Nationale pour la Protection des Données (CNPD), issued the fine to Amazon on 16 July, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing by the company on Friday.

In response, Amazon said: "We believe the CNPD's decision to be without merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter."

The fine comes following rising regulatory scrutiny of large tech companies due to concerns over privacy and misinformation, as well as complaints from some businesses that the tech giants have abused their market power.

The Wall Street Journal reported in June that Amazon could be fined more than $425m under the European Union's privacy law.

Amazon is by no means the first large company to fall foul of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but this fine is the largest there has been since the law came into effect in 2018 - and by a very significant margin.

The regulation introduced strict limits on the way in which sensitive data could be used, stored or processed.

While companies such as Google, British Airways, H&M and Marriot Hotels have all faced penalties from European governments for breaching the rules, those fines were in the tens, rather than the hundreds of millions.

We don't yet know exactly what Amazon did to attract such a severe penalty.

However, given that national authorities are meant to take account of the gravity, duration and character of the infringement when deciding on a penalty, it must be particularly serious.

What this shows is that legislation has teeth - and that even a country like Luxembourg, which has in other ways been very accommodating towards US multinationals, is willing to apply it forcefully.

But so far, Amazon is also being forceful. It says it believes the Luxembourg authority's decision to be without merit, and has promised to defend itself vigorously.

An Amazon spokeswoman said maintaining the "security of our customers' information and their trust" were "top priorities".

"There has been no data breach, and no customer data has been exposed to any third party," she added. "These facts are undisputed."

She stressed that the firm strongly disagrees with the CNPD's ruling and intends to appeal.

"The decision relating to how we show customers relevant advertising relies on subjective and untested interpretations of European privacy law, and the proposed fine is entirely out of proportion with even that interpretation," she added.

US tech giants, including Amazon, have been accused of "monopoly power" in recent years, which has prompted calls for the powers those companies have to be "reined in".

Previously, the EU's concerns were believed to centre around the data that Amazon has access to and how it uses it, such as sensitive commercial information on third-party products like volume and price.

In November, the European Commission charged Amazon with abusing its dominant position in online retail to gain an unfair advantage over competitors.

Meanwhile, in May, Amazon won a court battle over €250m (£215m) in taxes it had been ordered to pay Luxembourg.

The European Commission had ordered the tech giant to repay the funds as back taxes, alleging that Amazon had been given unfair special treatment, but a court overturned the order.

本文转载自：BBC www.bbc.com

原文地址：https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58024116

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