Google Slapped With €403 Million Fine for Breaching EU Location Data Rules

Google has been fined €403 million ($463 million) by Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) for breaching European Union privacy rules over its handling of location data. The fine is one of several handed out to Google in recent years, and it follows an investigation that dates back to 2020.

The DPC investigated how Google dealt with location data between May 2018 and February 2020 regarding three features: Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy. The regulator determined that Google didn't fairly or lawfully process location data in two of those features, and failed to meet transparency rules for all three.

Google will have to pay the fine within six months and make its location data processing compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This is not the first time Google has been in hot water in the EU - the company lost its final appeal over a $4.7 billion Android antitrust fine this summer, and was also fined $1 billion in July for unfairly prioritizing its own services in Search results.