(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. won an early round of its fight over a record 746 million-euro ($844 million) privacy fine after a Luxembourg judge suspended orders threatening to rack up extra daily fines of 0.1% that amount.
The president of the Luxembourg administrative tribunal on Friday suspended the orders obliging Amazon to make a number of changes to its data processes by Jan. 15 or risk the additional penalties.
The orders by the Luxembourg data protection authority weren’t “sufficiently clear, precise and without uncertainty” to allow Amazon to meet the ultimatum, the tribunal said in a statement.
Amazon is appealing July’s decision that accused the online retailer of processing personal data in violation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. The fine, which is suspended pending appeal, was the highest so far since GDPR took effect and watchdogs gained powers to levy fines of as much as 4% of a company’s annual global sales.
Amazon Clashes With Privacy Cop That Says It’s ‘Not a Help Desk’
At a hearing earlier this month, Amazon’s lawyer Thomas Berger said the watchdog’s deadline was “unrealistic,” because it’s not clear what changes are required.
“We have no guidance about what we need to do, so how do we do it?”
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