Uber fined nearly 825 million euros for automated driver blocking

The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP), the Dutch data protection authority, imposes a fine of 824,990,000 euros on Uber. „The reason for this is that the AP has ruled that Uber made fully automated decisions about drivers. In case of suspicions of fraud or customer reviews that were too low, drivers’ accounts were automatically temporarily deactivated or, in case of persistent low customer reviews, permanently deactivated. As a result, their income was lost via Uber during the deactivation.” – the authority said.

According to the AP, Uber has violated the prohibition of fully automated decision-making under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The AP also found that Uber did not sufficiently inform drivers about automatic decision-making. Uber has now stopped the violations.

Human intervention was lacking

Uber used software to track drivers’ (driving) behaviour and to track customer reviews. If that software detected a suspicion of fraud or customer reviews were too low, the accounts of the drivers concerned were automatically deactivated. There was no human assessment here. This occurred between 2018 and 2022.

Monique Verdier, deputy chair of the AP said: “Uber has committed serious infringements. Drivers were deactivated without pardon. From one moment to the next, they no longer had any income through Uber. That’s forbidden. A computer should not make decisions on its own that have major consequences for you. These decisions should have been looked at first by a human being.”

Complaints from drivers

The AP launched this investigation into Uber after 171 French drivers reported to the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH). It is a French human rights organization. LDH then lodged a complaint with the French privacy regulator, the CNIL, on behalf of the drivers.

The AP then did research, because Uber’s European headquarters are in The Netherlands. This procedure (one-stop shop mechanism) is regulated by the GDPR. During the investigation, the AP did cooperate closely with the French regulator. The AP has also aligned the fine decision with other European supervisors.

Amount of the fine for Uber

All European privacy regulators calculate the amount of fines for companies in the same way. These fines amount to a maximum of 4% of a company’s worldwide annual turnover. Uber had a global turnover of around 44.5 billion euros in 2025. Uber has filed an appeal against the fine.

Previous fines for Uber

This is the fourth fine imposed by the AP on Uber. In 2018, the AP fined Uber 600,000 euros, in 2023 a fine of 10 million euros and in 2024 a fine of 290 million euros. Uber defends itself against the last two fines; the procedures on this matter are still ongoing.