France Fines Amazon €32 Million Over Employee Surveillance
On Tuesday, Shafaq News/ France's data protection agency, CNIL, announced that it has fined Amazon's French warehouses unit €32 million ($34.9 million) for deploying an "excessively intrusive" surveillance system to monitor staff performance.
According to CNIL, Amazon France Logistique utilized scanners to monitor employees' work, triggering alerts for inactivity exceeding 10 minutes or specific handling times of packages down to the second.
The agency found methods like "stow machine guns" to identify items scanned too quickly. Employees faced continuous pressure and had to justify absences, with the time between entry and starting work monitored.
CNIL deemed this surveillance a violation of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which mandates strict rules on obtaining consent for using personal information. The fine represents approximately three percent of Amazon France Logistique's 2021 revenue, totaling 1.1 billion euros, with a net profit of 58.9 million euros.
Several thousand employees were impacted, prompting the CNIL to issue a "nearly unprecedented" fine close to its maximum allowable four percent of revenue. Amazon contested the findings, asserting the need for such systems for security, quality, and efficiency. The company plans to appeal the decision and adjust to CNIL's concerns.
