Uber Faces Almost $1 Billion Penalty Due to Automated Driver Suspensions

The Dutch Data Protection Authority has levied a fine of €825 million (around $966 million) on Uber, making it the second-largest sanction under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, according to reports from Reuters.

The investigation by the Dutch regulator was triggered by complaints alleging that Uber was using an automated system to deactivate driver accounts without sufficient notice or human oversight. Deputy chair Monique Verdier remarked that the company had “committed serious infringements.”

“A computer should not independently make decisions that have [such] significant consequences,” Verdier noted.

In response, Uber argued that the majority of driver suspensions are temporary and that no permanent deactivations occur without human review. They highlighted that drivers have the right to appeal their cases. (However, Dutch regulators claimed that certain drivers experienced permanent deactivations without any human oversight, which Uber disputes.) The company stated it plans to challenge the ruling.

“We strongly disagree with this ruling ​and the disproportionate fine,” an Uber spokesperson shared with Reuters. TechCrunch has reached out for additional comments from the firm.

Brahim Ben Ali, a former Uber driver in France, recounted to the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant that after his account was deactivated in 2019, he collected testimonies from 171 other Uber drivers and ultimately filed his complaint in the Netherlands, home to Uber’s European headquarters.

Ben Ali received support from PersonalData.io, a Swiss nonprofit dedicated to digital rights, which assisted drivers in gathering data on how deactivation decisions were made. Founder Paul-Olivier Dehaye emphasized that a driver “can complete thousands of rides with happy passengers, but if just one individual reports a significant issue, the repercussions can be severe.”

Dehaye informed me that this fine is the third imposed on Uber by the Dutch authority, following a €290 million penalty concerning the handling of drivers’ personal information and a €10 million fine for related violations. He also indicated intentions to launch a class action lawsuit that would allow drivers to pursue compensation.

Notably, Dehaye pointed out that all these penalties arise from complaints made by the same group of drivers. He is also establishing a new company, StartClaims, to facilitate legal action and other regulatory responses — initially focusing on Uber and eventually expanding to other gig economy cases and sectors such as adtech.

While discussing the matter with Dehaye (whom I have known casually since our college days), I referenced a blog post from Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, where he raised concerns that this fine could render it “unlawful in the EU for Uber to monitor its drivers for customer scams or for neglecting to pick up riders, consequently leaving them without a ride.”

Gruber also criticized Verdier’s comments, arguing, “Claiming that ‘a computer’ made these decisions is like saying that when a business suspends or fires an employee who is frequently tardy, it was ‘the clock’ that made the call. Company managers set the policies, while devices track employee compliance.”

Dehaye countered that Gruber “misses the essence of the issue.”

“Uber can utilize human judgment to penalize drivers who commit fraud; however, it must also take responsibility for these decision-making processes (making it akin to ‘being an employer’, rather than just ‘being a marketplace’),” he asserted.