Win for Amazon as Luxembourg court scraps record $854 million privacy fine

Foo Yun Chee

Fri, March 13, 2026 astatine 11:24 AM CDT 1 min read

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS, March 13 (Reuters) - Amazon connected Friday won its entreaty against a grounds 746-million-euro ($854.4 million) ‌fine imposed by Luxembourg’s privateness regulator, aft a tribunal ‌found the watchdog had not decently carried retired its investigation and indispensable ​reassess the case.

The Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) penalised Amazon successful 2021 implicit its online behavioural advertizing practices, saying its processing of users' idiosyncratic information breached EU privateness rules known arsenic ‌the General Data Protection ⁠Regulation (GDPR).

The aforesaid tribunal had past twelvemonth sided with the privateness watchdog by upholding the fine, prompting ⁠Amazon to entreaty its ruling.

Judges said they accepted the U.S. tech giant's statement that the watchdog had failed to analyse whether ​the institution ​had intentionally violated the GDPR ​or was simply negligent.

They said ‌CNPD besides did not analyse different authorisation options and had astir automatically handed retired the fine.

"The applicable investigation by the supervisory authorization volition person to beryllium carried retired for the archetypal clip upon referral," the tribunal said, annulling the regulator's 2021 ‌decision.

Amazon welcomed the tribunal judgment.

"We powerfully ​disagreed with the archetypal ruling and ​disproportionate good that had ​originally been issued successful this case, which is ‌why we appealed," a spokesperson ​for the institution ​said successful an email.

The CNPD said it took enactment of the ruling.

It said its enactment "has led to Amazon's practices ​being brought into ‌full compliance with the applicable provisions of the lawsuit ​regarding online behavioural advertising".

($1 = 0.8731 euros)

(Reporting by Foo Yun ​Chee, Editing by Louise Heavens)