Who was sanctioned, and for what?

The provider of web-based systems for sickness reporting, rehabilitation and occupational safety incidents was hacked in August 2025; the stolen personal data appeared on the dark web shortly afterwards. The Swedish data protection authority (Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten, IMY) found that, despite the high need for protection, there were no adequate security measures and no automatic real-time monitoring for attacks, assessed this as negligent and imposed 1,800,000 SEK.

Authority / court

Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten (IMY)

Area of law

Data protection · Data breaches and data security

Legal basis

Art. 32 Abs. 1 DSGVO

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Culpability

negligent

Published

22 Sep 2026

Original amount 1,800,000 SEK, converted at the ECB reference rate of 22 Sep 2026.

Checked against the official source on 25 Sep 2026 · Direct link

Through a software vulnerability in a mail platform developed by KDDI and provided to several internet service providers, unauthorised parties obtained the credentials (email address and password) of 12,231,954 people; 7,616,173 passwords were stored in plain text, so mailboxes could be read (discovered on 17 June 2026). The authority gave KDDI guidance (shidō) under Art. 147 APPI to improve its technical security measures because access controls against attackers spreading through the system had been inadequate, required a report by 19 October 2026 and also gave such guidance to individual providers responsible for the plain-text storage.

Authority / court

Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC, 個人情報保護委員会)

Area of law

Data protection · Data breaches and data security

Legal basis

Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI, 個人情報の保護に関する法律) Art. 147, Art. 146 Abs. 1

Action

Reprimand or warning

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Employees

10,000 or more

Published

19 Aug 2026

Checked against the official source on 4 Oct 2026 · Direct link

Attackers copied certificates from lost femtocells of KT Corporation into home-made devices, stayed connected to the mobile network undetected for around eleven months, intercepted data on 16,647 subscribers (phone number, IMSI, IMEI) and used intercepted confirmation codes to trigger unauthorised mobile payments of around 240 million KRW affecting 368 people. For inadequate access control – certificates valid for ten years, no IP restriction, no detection of unknown cell IDs – the authority imposed a penalty surcharge of 53,979,000,000 KRW and ordered vulnerability checks and a stronger role for the chief privacy officer.

Authority / court

Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC, 개인정보보호위원회)

Area of law

Data protection · Data breaches and data security

Legal basis

Personal Information Protection Act (개인정보 보호법) Art. 29, Sanktion nach Art. 64-2(1) Nr. 9; gesonderter Beschluss 제2026-015-094호: Art. 63(1)

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Culpability

negligent

Mitigating circumstances

Reduction of 30% because no benefit was derived and a further 50% for cooperation, remediation, compensation of those affected and protective efforts; increase of 50% because the infringement lasted more than two years.

Liability of senior managers

The company was ordered to define the responsibility and role of its chief privacy officer (CPO) for the whole company clearly and to revise its governance.

Published

30 Jul 2026

Original amount 53,979,000,000 KRW, converted at the ECB reference rate of 29 Jul 2026.

Checked against the official source on 4 Oct 2026 · Direct link

The Garante (Italian data protection authority) fined TIM 9,516,000 EUR because call centres outside the official sales network made promotional calls on the company's behalf using numbers not recorded in the operators' register ROC or falsified numbers (spoofing), often to lines entered in the do-not-call register, and the contacts obtained in this way reached its systems as apparently lawful leads via fictitious call-back requests on sales partners' web forms. The authority found that TIM had selected and supervised its sales partners inadequately and had systematically failed to answer, or answered late, requests for access, erasure and objection. In addition, TIM must secure its lead process, strengthen oversight of the sales chain and adapt its procedures for data subject rights.

Authority / court

Garante per la protezione dei dati personali

Area of law

Data protection · Marketing and consent

Legal basis

Art. 5, 6, 7, 12, 15–22, 24, 25, 28 und 32 DSGVO; Art. 130 Codice in materia di protezione dei dati personali (D.Lgs. 196/2003)

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Employees

10,000 or more

Culpability

negligent

Repeat case

yes

Mitigating circumstances

Taken into account as mitigating: short period and limited number of data subjects, measures taken during the proceedings (including checks on and termination of contracts with partners), a high level of cooperation, no special categories of personal data, adherence to the telemarketing code of conduct and substantial investment in controlling the sales chain.

Published

31 Jul 2026

Checked against the official source on 28 Sep 2026 · Direct link

The CNIL (French data protection authority) fined the IT and engineering consultancy EXTIA EUR 300,000 because, of 265 erasure requests received in 2024 – mostly from job applicants, occasionally from former employees – 12 were not processed at all and 166 applicants were not told of the outcome; 27 received their reply only after the one-month deadline. The CNIL regarded this as particularly negligent, especially as the company had already been reminded of its obligations by the CNIL twice in 2024 (Art. 12 and 17 GDPR).

Authority / court

Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL), formation restreinte

Area of law

Data protection · Data subject rights and transparency

Legal basis

Art. 12 und 17 DSGVO

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Employees

1,000 to 9,999

Culpability

negligent

Repeat case

yes

Mitigating circumstances

During the proceedings the company deleted the data concerned and informed the applicants retrospectively.

Published

9 Sep 2026

Checked against the official source on 2 Oct 2026 · Direct link

A synchronisation error between two applications allowed a customer to retrieve other customers’ invoices in the mobile app; in addition, the ticketing platform, which was publicly accessible without VPN, MFA or IP restriction, was attacked and a very large data set (including copies of identity documents, card data, IBANs) was exfiltrated. The Romanian data protection authority (ANSPDCP) imposed fines of 104,780 lei (20,000 EUR, Art. 25) and 419,120 lei (80,000 EUR, Art. 32), a total of 523,900 lei, and ordered test and change management. Date = publication of the press release; according to the authority, the investigation was concluded in the previous month.

Authority / court

Autoritatea Națională de Supraveghere a Prelucrării Datelor cu Caracter Personal (ANSPDCP)

Area of law

Data protection · Data breaches and data security

Legal basis

Art. 25 Abs. 1, Art. 32 Abs. 1 lit. b und d, Abs. 2 und 4 DSGVO

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Published

17 Jul 2026

Original amount 523,900 RON, converted at the ECB reference rate of 17 Jul 2026.

Checked against the official source on 25 Sep 2026 · Direct link

The Garante (Italian data protection authority) fined the US operator of the generative AI service Character.AI, on which users – including minors – chat with virtual characters, 158,000 EUR, among other things for deficient privacy information, a data protection impact assessment prepared late and the late appointment of a representative in the EU. It also criticised weaknesses in the protection of minors and in age verification; within 120 days the company must ensure working age verification, an effective cooling-off period preventing blocked minors from re-registering and private-by-default profiles for minors.

Authority / court

Garante per la protezione dei dati personali

Area of law

Data protection · Data subject rights and transparency

Legal basis

Art. 5 Abs. 2, 12 Abs. 1, 13 Abs. 1 und 2, 14 Abs. 1 und 2, 24 Abs. 1, 25 Abs. 2, 27 Abs. 1 und 35 Abs. 1 DSGVO

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Culpability

negligent

Repeat case

no

Mitigating circumstances

Mitigating: progressively strengthened age checks (a dedicated service for minors, age verification by a third-party provider), no previous relevant infringements, cooperation and amendments to the privacy policy during the proceedings.

Published

9 Jul 2026

Checked against the official source on 28 Sep 2026 · Direct link

After almost four years of litigation, the federal district court for Idaho entered an order agreed between the FTC and the data broker Kochava. The FTC had alleged that Kochava sold precise location data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices without the knowledge and consent of the people concerned, revealing, for example, visits to health facilities and places of worship. Kochava and its subsidiary Collective Data Solutions, which has taken over the data broker business, may only share sensitive location data with affirmative consent and for services requested by the consumer, and must introduce, among other things, a sensitive-locations programme, checks on their data suppliers, disclosure of recipients and retention limits; no payment is provided for. The authority allegedly made the findings set out here; this account is not based on a final judgment.

Authority / court

U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho auf Klage der Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Area of law

Data protection · Data subject rights and transparency

Legal basis

Section 5 FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45 (unlautere Praktiken); Verfahren nach Section 13(b), 15 U.S.C. § 53(b)

Action

Order

Status of proceedings

final

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Published

26 Jun 2026

Checked against the official source on 3 Oct 2026 · Direct link

According to the complaint by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Illuminate promised schools data security but did not adequately protect its cloud databases, even though a service provider had pointed out vulnerabilities almost two years earlier; a hacker accessed data on 10.1 million students, including health information. The order requires an information security programme, data minimisation and a public deletion schedule, and prohibits misrepresentations about security and notification deadlines.

Authority / court

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Area of law

Data protection · Data breaches and data security

Legal basis

FTC Act (Verbot unlauterer und irreführender Praktiken)

Action

Order

Status of proceedings

final

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Culpability

negligent

Published

5 Jun 2026

Checked against the official source on 25 Sep 2026 · Direct link

Attackers posed as technical support, induced staff at points of sale to grant system access and obtained data on more than 365,000 customers, including payment data for 41,359 of them. The Italian data protection authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) criticised deficient management of access credentials and digital certificates as well as inadequate security assessments, and imposed 1,715,600 EUR.

Authority / court

Garante per la protezione dei dati personali

Area of law

Data protection · Data breaches and data security

Legal basis

DSGVO (Integrität und Vertraulichkeit, Art. 32)

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Published

16 Jul 2026

Checked against the official source on 25 Sep 2026 · Direct link

The Privacy Commissioner found that the rental application platform 2Apply collected more personal information than necessary from March 2020 to March 2025, such as gender, student status, citizenship, visa expiry and previous living arrangements, and did so unfairly through design techniques such as “confirmshaming”, biased framing and bundled consent. The determination requires IRE to stop this collection within 60 days, engage an independent reviewer and report to the OAIC within twelve months on implementing the recommendations.

Authority / court

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)

Area of law

Data protection · Data subject rights and transparency

Legal basis

APP 3.2 und APP 3.5 (Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)); Feststellungen nach s 52(1A)

Action

Order

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Mitigating circumstances

IRE adapted its collection practices during the investigation without admitting a breach.

Published

22 Apr 2026

Checked against the official source on 3 Oct 2026 · Direct link

Singtel Optus asked customers who ported their number to Optus whether they wanted to appear in the phone directory, but between October 2015 and September 2019 it did not act on requests for an unlisted number, so that 41,278 affected customers remained published in the White Pages. The Privacy Commissioner found a breach of APP 11.1 because Optus did not remove a risk of errors it had been aware of throughout the period with reasonable steps such as regular system reconciliations, and declared that the company must not repeat this conduct. The regulator intends to decide on compensation separately in a representative complaint concerning the same conduct.

Authority / court

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)

Area of law

Data protection · Data breaches and data security

Legal basis

Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) s 13(1), APP 11.1; Erklärung nach s 52(1A)(a)

Action

Order

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Published

11 Jun 2026

Checked against the official source on 3 Oct 2026 · Direct link

Following six complaints, the Tietosuojavaltuutetun toimisto (Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman) found that the company did not provide a copy to customers who requested recordings of their sales calls in order to dispute invoices, offering only to let them listen via customer service, and in some cases deleted recordings. In addition to a reprimand, a fine of 5,000 EUR was imposed.

Authority / court

Tietosuojavaltuutetun toimisto – seuraamuskollegio (Datenschutzbeauftragter, Sanktionsgremium)

Area of law

Data protection · Data subject rights and transparency

Legal basis

DSGVO Art. 15 Abs. 1 und 3

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Published

25 Mar 2026

Checked against the official source on 25 Sep 2026 · Direct link

The provider of management software and an app for sports clubs suffered a data exfiltration by an external attacker in January 2025. The Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY) found that no appropriate technical and organisational security measures were in place before and at the time of the incident, even though the data processed related predominantly to children and also included health information (allergies, disabilities), and imposed 6 million SEK; in setting the amount it took into account the 2024 group turnover of the Lime group (around 685.7 million SEK).

Authority / court

Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten (IMY)

Area of law

Data protection · Data breaches and data security

Legal basis

DSGVO Art. 32 Abs. 1

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Mitigating circumstances

Prompt and comprehensive information of the clubs and data subjects after the incident; support for around 1,700 clubs in filing their notifications within 72 hours.

Published

26 Jan 2026

Original amount 6,000,000 SEK, converted at the ECB reference rate of 26 Jan 2026.

Checked against the official source on 25 Sep 2026 · Direct link

Datatilsynet (Norwegian Data Protection Authority) fined the time-recording system provider Timegrip AS NOK 250,000 because, after a retail chain went bankrupt, the company refused 80 former employees access to their clock-in data, which they needed to document their wage claims. The authority treated Timegrip as controller, since after the bankruptcy the company alone in fact decided on storage, use and access, and found a breach of the right of access under Art. 15(1) and (3) GDPR. A fine of NOK 750,000 had been notified; the authority took into account, among other things, the confused situation and its own long case-handling time.

Authority / court

Datatilsynet

Area of law

Data protection · Data subject rights and transparency

Legal basis

Art. 15 Abs. 1 und 3, Art. 58 Abs. 2 lit. i, Art. 83 DSGVO

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Culpability

intentional

Mitigating circumstances

The confused situation after the customer's bankruptcy (given only limited weight) and Datatilsynet's long case-handling time; NOK 750,000 had been notified.

Published

20 Jan 2026

Original amount 250,000 NOK, converted at the ECB reference rate of 16 Jan 2026.

Checked against the official source on 28 Sep 2026 · Direct link

Following an attack in October 2024 in which data relating to around 24 million customer contracts, including IBANs, was exfiltrated, the French data protection authority (CNIL) imposed 27 million EUR on Free Mobile and 15 million EUR on Free (42 million EUR in total). The authority objected to VPN access without adequate authentication, deficient detection of suspicious access, incomplete notification of data subjects and, at Free Mobile, excessively long retention of old contracts; orders with deadlines were also issued.

Authority / court

Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL)

Area of law

Data protection · Data breaches and data security

Legal basis

Art. 5 Abs. 1 lit. e, Art. 32, Art. 34 DSGVO

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Mitigating circumstances

During the proceedings, the companies introduced multi-factor authentication, a Security Operations Centre and improved logging.

Published

14 Jan 2026

Checked against the official source on 25 Sep 2026 · Direct link

The provider of cloud-based HR software received an extortion email in April 2024; an attacker had deleted databases on its AWS servers and likely exfiltrated data, and data allegedly taken was offered for sale on the dark web – data on 95,000 employees of its clients (including identity number, salary, bank account and religion) and on 24,765 emergency contacts and children was put at risk. The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC, Singapore's data protection authority) found a breach of the Protection Obligation because, despite the HR data entrusted to it by clients, the provider had no web application firewall against existing SQL injection vulnerabilities, remote desktop access open to the internet without two-factor authentication, and vulnerability scans only every two years. It imposed 17,500 SGD, payable in twelve monthly instalments in view of the company's cash flow, and directed among other things a web application firewall, annual penetration tests, two-factor authentication and encryption of all personal data fields.

Authority / court

Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC)

Area of law

Data protection · Data processors

Legal basis

Section 24 PDPA 2012 (Protection Obligation); Section 48J PDPA (Financial Penalty)

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Repeat case

no

Mitigating circumstances

Cooperation, admission under the Expedited Decision Procedure and first breach; payment in instalments in view of cash flow, while a waiver was refused.

Published

8 Jan 2026

Original amount 17,500 SGD, converted at the ECB reference rate of 8 Jan 2026.

Checked against the official source on 4 Oct 2026 · Direct link

In August 2024 an attacker encrypted a network drive shared by SESAMi and its subsidiary Abecha holding payment data (including full credit card numbers and bank account details) of around 20,471 customers of the subsidiary's fuel fleet discount programme and of up to 18,837 individuals from registrations for SESAMi's B2B platform; exfiltration could not be established. The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC, Singapore's data protection authority) classified SESAMi, which ran the network for the subsidiary without a written contract, as a data intermediary in that respect and found a negligent breach of the Protection Obligation by SESAMi (including outdated firewall and VPN firmware, no patch management and unenforced password and MFA rules), and likewise by Abecha, which as controller had taken no steps to ensure adequate security at SESAMi. SESAMi received 8,750 SGD and directions, while Abecha, as the controller, received directions only, including setting out roles and data protection duties within the group in writing.

Authority / court

Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC)

Area of law

Data protection · Data processors

Legal basis

Section 24(a) PDPA 2012 (Protection Obligation); Section 4(3) PDPA (Pflichten bei Einsatz eines Data Intermediary); Section 48J PDPA (Financial Penalty)

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Culpability

negligent

Mitigating circumstances

Cooperation, prompt and effective remediation, admission under the Expedited Decision Procedure; for Abecha also lower culpability owing to its limited autonomy as a wholly owned subsidiary, one of the reasons for not imposing a fine on it.

Published

26 Feb 2026

Original amount 8,750 SGD, converted at the ECB reference rate of 29 Dec 2025.

Checked against the official source on 4 Oct 2026 · Direct link

As a processor, Nexpublica developed and operated the case management software ‘Public CRM’ for the disability authority MDPH Nord. Following two data breaches in 2022, audits revealed critical vulnerabilities that had existed since 2021, such as outdated SHA-1 hashing; the French data protection authority (CNIL) imposed 1.7 million EUR directly on the service provider.

Authority / court

Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL)

Area of law

Data protection · Data processors

Legal basis

Art. 32 DSGVO

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Checked against the official source on 25 Sep 2026 · Direct link

The CNIL (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés, French data protection authority) fined MOBIUS SOLUTIONS LTD, a provider of tools for personalised advertising campaigns with no establishment in the EU, EUR 1,000,000: as a processor for Deezer, the company had kept a copy of the data of more than 46 million users after the contract ended, used the data without instructions to improve its own services and kept no record of its processing activities (Art. 28(3)(g), Art. 29, Art. 30 GDPR). Deezer had notified the CNIL in November 2022 that user data had appeared on the dark web.

Authority / court

Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL), formation restreinte

Area of law

Data protection · Data processors

Legal basis

Art. 28 Abs. 3 lit. g, Art. 29 und Art. 30 DSGVO (Délibération SAN-2025-014 vom 11.12.2025)

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Telecoms, IT and software

Published

19 Dec 2025

Checked against the official source on 2 Oct 2026 · Direct link