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Comment by cobookman | Hacker News Reader

What happens if EU found to be violating GDPR. Does it fine itself 5% of tax rev?

Fines for GDPR transgressions are administered by the 28 national government's data privacy regulators. The money also goes into the countries' coffers, not the European Union. See for example https://www.gdpreu.org/compliance/fines-and-penalties/.

But GDPR is mostly not about fines, but about the rights of citizen (/consumers) to get information, request deletion, etc. Citizen can file lawsuits in their local courts. It's somewhat improbable (as in: it has never happened) for the EU to disregard a judgement, just like the US government complies with adverse judgements by the Supreme Court.

The regulators can (and do) take enforcement action against government bodies. Some recent examples from the UK:

https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/enforcement/?facet_type...

> The regulators can (and do) take enforcement action against government bodies.

I did not dispute this. I merely said enforcement is usually not accomplished via fines when targeted against government bodies, because those are inherently expected to comply without the necessity of threats.

Skimming two of the linked pdfs, these did not mention fines.

In Italy we have 4 types of police: 1 for traffic, 1 for financial, and 2 are for more generic crime.

I read a while ago about a fight between two cars of the latter two types, at the end of which they gave each other a ticket and left.

I don’t know how the EU operates, but in the US there is no specific agency that could get the US government in trouble with it’s self. Instead, at the federal level you have each state as it’s own thing, specific elected officials, and federal agencies. That breakdown continues at the state and local level.

Anyway, a federal agency, state, or elected official may get in trouble, but that would not then bubble up to the entire federal government.

Perhaps not to an individual, but states and cities sue federal agencies all the time.

IANAL, but I believe it is possible to sue the "entire federal government." When someone commits a federal crime, the paperwork reads "United States vs. {$alleged_miscreant}." So it seems to me that the opposite should also be possible.

The Federal government has sovereign immunity. You can't sue them unless they say you can.

There are limited instances were congress has waived immunity through legislation.

That'd be great. More money to fund public services.

Taking money from a publicly funded agency and redistributing it within the government does not create more funds.

The EU institutions are exempt from GDPR, because of legal technicalities. There are separate regulations, substantially equivalent to the GDPR, that apply to the EU.

I recall from reading the law the the government is explicitly exempt from GDPR. I can't pull up a citation right now so take it with a grain of salt.

From https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/privacy-en-persoons...:

"Sinds 25 mei 2018 moeten overheden, bedrijfsleven en verenigingen voldoen aan de Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming (AVG)."

meaning:

"Since 25 May 2018, governments, businesses and associations must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG)."

There's an option to be exempt. In Belgium the government is exempt. As consequence the Belgium government has been sued for being exempt(see https://www.tijd.be/ondernemen/algemeen/werkgevers-dienen-kl..., use google translate).

Seems like the government employees should have some skin in the game. Maybe lay off a percentage of the workforce for poor performance? Maybe the committee that interrogated Zuckerberg should be publicly interrogated themselves. Why fine the tax payer?

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