In a move that will surprise absolutely no one who has ever been ghosted by a gig economy app, the Dutch Data Protection Authority has slapped Uber with a fine of €825 million (around $966 million) - the second largest penalty issued so far under Europe's General Data Protection Regulation, according to Reuters. The fine stems from complaints that Uber deactivated driver accounts through an automated process without sufficient warning or human oversight.

Deputy chair Monique Verdier delivered the corporate equivalent of a parental lecture: "A computer should not make decisions on its own that have [such] major consequences." Verdier added that the company had "committed serious infringements." Uber, for its part, argued that most driver suspensions are brief, that no permanent deactivations take place without human review, and that drivers can appeal. Dutch regulators, however, said some drivers were permanently deactivated without human review - a claim Uber disputes. The company plans to appeal, with a spokesperson telling Reuters, "We strongly disagree with this decision and disproportionate fine."

The saga began with Brahim Ben Ali, a former Uber driver in France, whose account was deactivated in 2019. He collected testimonies from 170 other Uber drivers and brought his complaint to the Netherlands, where Uber's European headquarters are located. He was assisted by PersonalData.io, a Swiss nonprofit focused on digital rights, which helped drivers gather data on how deactivation decisions were made. Founder Paul-Olivier Dehaye noted, "A driver can complete a thousand journeys with satisfied passengers, but if just one person reports a very serious problem, the consequences can be enormous."

Dehaye revealed this is the third fine the Dutch regulator has levied on Uber, following a €290 million fine over its handling of drivers' personal data and a €10 million fine from related issues. He also plans to launch a class action suit for driver compensation. And because regulatory fines are apparently a gateway drug, Dehaye is starting a new company called StartClaims to support litigation and other regulatory action - first against Uber, then expanding to other gig economy cases and related areas like adtech.

In a twist that could only happen in tech journalism, the conversation turned to a blog post by Daring Fireball's John Gruber, who worried the fine makes it "unlawful in the EU for Uber to monitor its drivers for pulling scams against customers, or just never picking riders up, leaving them stranded." Gruber also took issue with Verdier's statement, arguing, "Saying that 'a computer' made these decisions is like saying that when a company suspends or fires a habitually late employee, that 'the time clock' made the decision." Dehaye countered that Gruber "misses the point," saying, "Uber is free to use humans to punish drivers who scam, but then [it] has to take responsibility for this decision making (like 'being an employer', not 'being a marketplace')."

So, in the end, it's a classic tale of man vs. machine, with the machine winning the fine, the man winning the argument, and the drivers still waiting for someone to actually answer the phone.