Spotify fined almost 5 million euros

Sacred setback for the world number one audio platform. Spotify was fined Tuesday, June 13, a fine of 58 million crowns (5 million euros) from the Swedish authorities under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The company has not communicated sufficiently precisely on how it uses the data of its users, estimated the Swedish data protection authority.

“A person requesting access to their data should be able to easily understand how the company uses that data”, explained one of the lawyers who led the investigation. And in some more complex cases, the explanations around these data must be available “not only in English, but also in the language of the data subject”. But these shortcomings are “not serious overall”added the Swedish authority, pointing out that the company had “taken several measures to meet the requirements of the right of access of persons”.

The amount of the fine is justified by the place occupied by the platform in the legal music streaming sector, and given the number of its users, more than 515 million at the last score in April. In force for five years in the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has gradually become part of the legislation of each country. The text, applicable by the national authorities of the Member States since May 2018, allows penalties of up to 20 million euros or 4% of a company’s worldwide turnover.