Uber Technologies Inc. has been fined €825 million, or about $963 million, by Dutch authorities over automated systems used to suspend driver accounts, according to Bloomberg. The penalty is described as the second-largest under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. Bloomberg reports that the Dutch Data Protection Authority said the fine covers the period from 2020 to 2022. The authority found that Uber violated drivers’ right to be informed about automatic decision-making affecting their accounts, Bloomberg reported, citing Reuters as the first outlet to report the penalty. The Financial Times, as summarized by Techmeme earlier Friday, also reported that Uber was set to face a €825 million fine from the Dutch data watchdog over automated systems used to deactivate driver accounts. Bloomberg’s later report presents the penalty as already imposed. The material issue, based on the available reports, is not simply that Uber used automation, but that the regulator says drivers were not properly informed about automated decision-making around account suspensions or deactivations. The provided summaries do not include Uber’s response or any appeal plans. The size of the penalty places the case among the most significant GDPR enforcement actions reported to date. It also puts account-level automation in gig-work platforms squarely inside the privacy and data-rights enforcement frame, at least as described by the Dutch authority in Bloomberg’s report. Who benefits: Drivers and worker groups seeking more transparency around automated account actions may gain leverage from the regulator’s finding. Privacy regulators also gain a high-profile precedent for scrutinizing platform decision systems under GDPR. Who's exposed: Platforms operating in the European Union that use automated systems to suspend, deactivate, or otherwise restrict user or worker accounts face heightened exposure. The reports specifically concern Uber and driver accounts, not all platform automation generally.