Global Intelligence

EU Fines Uber $966 Million Over Automated Driver Deactivations

The penalty, issued by the Dutch Data Protection Authority, is one of the largest GDPR enforcement actions against a gig-economy platform and tests how far EU regulators will go in applying data...

Gab-E Intelligence Platform · August 23, 2026

The Dutch Data Protection Authority has fined Uber approximately $966 million for violating the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation by automatically deactivating drivers through fully automated decision-making, according to a report by Al Bawaba published August 23, 2026. The authority determined that Uber's automated systems deprived drivers of income without human review, a practice the regulator said contravenes GDPR protections governing automated individual decision-making.

The investigation originated with a complaint filed by 171 French drivers who reported Uber to a local human rights organization, which subsequently escalated the case to data protection authorities, according to Al Bawaba. The drivers alleged they had been removed from the platform without adequate explanation or human oversight of the decision.

The GDPR, in force across all EU member states since 2018, includes Article 22, which gives individuals the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing when those decisions produce significant effects on them. Employment and income consequences are generally considered significant under that standard, according to the text of the regulation published by the European Commission.

Uber has faced prior GDPR enforcement actions in Europe. The Dutch Data Protection Authority previously fined the company 290 million euros in 2023 for transferring European drivers' personal data to the United States without adequate safeguards, as reported by Reuters at that time. The company's response to the current fine, and whether it intends to appeal, was not stated in the available source material. The Dutch Data Protection Authority's official decision documents would contain the full legal findings and any compliance timeline.

We Follow the Data, Not the Narrative

The Congressional Times exists because public records are public — and the analysis built from them should not be exclusive to those who can afford $60,000-a-year intelligence subscriptions.

Every story published in The Congressional Times is sourced to a verifiable public record: a court filing, a Senate lobbying disclosure, an FEC contribution record, a USASpending contract, or a verified news report. We state our sources inline. We show our math. When we are wrong, we say so publicly.

We do not editorialize in news coverage. We do not use loaded language. Both political parties are held to identical standards.

The Follow the Money investigations are the heart of this publication. Each begins with Gab-E Political Intelligence running against 10+ million government records before a single word of editorial is written.

How We Source, Verify, and Correct Our Work

Every factual claim in a Congressional Times story is checked against a primary source: a government filing, a court record, a direct quote, before publication. When a claim can't be verified or doesn't hold up as originally reported, we drop it or reframe it. We do not publish disputed claims as settled fact.

When we get it wrong: we correct the story directly, note the correction and date at the bottom of the piece, and update the record. We do not quietly edit and move on.

Bylines: stories with a named byline are written and fact-checked by that person. Stories without a byline are sourced from Gab-E Political Intelligence, our automated research platform, and are labeled as such.

Ownership: The Congressional Times is published by Gab-E Holdings LLC. Gab-E, our intelligence platform, powers our sourcing and research pipeline.

Corrections or concerns: support@gab-e.com

EU Fines Uber $966 Million Over Automated Driver Deactivations

We Follow the Data, Not the Narrative

How We Source, Verify, and Correct Our Work

More From The Congressional Times