EU’s Privacy Watchdogs Urged to Use Full Force of New Powers

(Bloomberg) -- European Union data protection watchdogs, armed with the right to levy massive fines for two years, still haven’t made full use of their powers, according to an EU report.

While the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR as it is more widely known, has been working well, a lack of resources may be impeding the work of authorities, the European Commission said Wednesday.

Examples include the Irish regulator -- the lead data protection authority for some of the biggest U.S. tech companies, including Twitter Inc., Facebook Inc., Google and Apple Inc -- which has received criticism for being slow to conclude probes.

“Given that the largest big tech multinationals are established in Ireland and Luxembourg, the data protection authorities of these countries act as lead authorities in many important cross-border cases and may need larger resources than their population would otherwise suggest,” the EU report said.

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