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It's not a 20m / 4% floor, the fines will be discretionary and most importantly are likely to be incremental. EU regulatory authorities do not usually operate i

It's not a 20m / 4% floor, the fines will be discretionary and most importantly are likely to be incremental. EU regulatory authorities do not usually operate in a "shut your service off for non-compliance" mode: assuming they receive a tip-off about your business not being compliant with GDPR 1) they send you a notice and ask for proof of compliance. If you produce evidence, the case is likely closed. 2) assuming you can't produce that evidence, they will give you a warning and a deadline by which to become compliant. A small fine may be levied at this time 3) if the deadline passes without you having done anything, they will eventually get round to giving you a new date, issue a sterner warning and increase the fine for non compliance. To get a $20m fine you'd have to be a massive corporation and be caught repeatedly flaunting the regulation in an outrageous and damaging way (for the consumer); any idea of closing off your small service / website / whatever to EU users because of the perceived risk of a fine is a massive overreaction.

3pt14159 8y ago
The max fine is 4% with a $20m floor. People play games with language and try to pretend that just because judges have discretion that this isn't somehow ridiculous. It is not mandatory that the EU issue a warning. What the EU should have done if they didn't want small startup owners to freak out is they should have made the process clearer and if the $20m level is only aimed at massive corporations then why make it $20m at all? Why not just make it 10% of revenue? I'm not from the EU, I have no idea how the EU court system works. They did not make this easy for small startups.
- GiuseppaAcciaio 8y ago
  Let's read the actual document then shall we? It's written in plain enough language for anyone to understand: http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/document.cfm?doc_id=47889 http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/document.cfm?doc_id=47889 20m is one of the two ceilings (the other being 10m) for fines, and in several paragraphs in the document I linked the principles of discretionality, effectiveness and proportionality are stated. If a regulator tried to levy a $20m fine against a startup for a first offence, there would be a strong case to appeal the ruling at an EU court

3pt14159 8y ago

The max fine is 4% with a $20m floor. People play games with language and try to pretend that just because judges have discretion that this isn't somehow ridiculous. It is not mandatory that the EU issue a warning. What the EU should have done if they didn't want small startup owners to freak out is they should have made the process clearer and if the $20m level is only aimed at massive corporations then why make it $20m at all? Why not just make it 10% of revenue? I'm not from the EU, I have no idea how the EU court system works. They did not make this easy for small startups.

GiuseppaAcciaio 8y ago
Let's read the actual document then shall we? It's written in plain enough language for anyone to understand: http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/document.cfm?doc_id=47889 http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/document.cfm?doc_id=47889 20m is one of the two ceilings (the other being 10m) for fines, and in several paragraphs in the document I linked the principles of discretionality, effectiveness and proportionality are stated. If a regulator tried to levy a $20m fine against a startup for a first offence, there would be a strong case to appeal the ruling at an EU court