Spotify Is Fined $5.4 Million In Sweden For GDPR Violations

Spotify faces a $5.4 million penalties for failing to provide complete information about the personal data company stores, in violation of GDPR standards.

Spotify was found to be in violation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 15. The complaint was filed in 2019 by the non-profit privacy rights organization noyb. In it, noyb claims that Spotify failed to submit all required personal data and did not provide information on the processing’s intentions. The initial complaint was lodged in Austria before being routed to Sweden, where it sat for four years.

Noyb filed a lawsuit against the Swedish data protection authorities due to the lack of a decision. More than four years after the lawsuit was filed, IMY finally ordered Spotify to release the whole collection of data to the complaint.

“We are relieved that the Swedish authorities finally acted,” says Stefano Rossetti, a privacy lawyer at noyb. “It is a fundamental right of every user to obtain complete information about the data processed about them.” However, the case took more than four years to resolve, and we had to go to the IMY for a decision. The Swedish authorities must absolutely speed up their proceedings.”

Spotify intends to challenge the verdict, claiming that only minor aspects of its data handling should be improved. “Spotify provides comprehensive information to all users about how their personal data is processed,” a Spotify representative told Digital Music News. “During their investigation, the Swedish DPA discovered only minor flaws in our process that they believe need to be addressed.” However, we disagree with the verdict and intend to appeal.”

Spotify, according to noyb, is not the only platform that violates European users’ GDPR data access rights. Amazon, Apple Music, DAZN, Flimmit, Netflix, Spotify, SoundCloud, and YouTube are among them. Each of these organizations established automated processes to handle SAR requests that did not provide all of the information that Europeans have a legal right to seek.

Spotify Is Fined $5.4 Million In Sweden For GDPR Violations

Spotify faces a $5.4 million penalties for failing to provide complete information about the personal data company stores, in violation of GDPR standards.

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