The EU has recognized that a 200 million fine won't hurt facebook. Instead it says "fines up to X€ or Y% of global turnover, whichever is higher."

I also strongly suspect that in cases like FB or Google, the judges will happily go for the 4% mark if possible.

Ok, great thanks for clearing that up.

Yes, this is a good thing, in opinion. There was a case where a Finnish man was fine 54,000 Euro for speeding, where the fine is calculated based on income[1]. I think this seems like a reasonable way of metering our penalties.

It seems reasonable to me companies should be treated in a similar manner.

1. http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-31709454

Atleast for regulations like these, yeah. Big corps like facebook don't care if they get hit with 200 M€. 4% of Facebook's global turnover however...

I'm sure the EU will find some way to spend 2 billion € for something useful. (13% of their net income btw)

Yes. A minor technical cockup when the company is attempting to meet the spirit of the law wouldn't be treated as harshly as a systematic failure, or a deliberate attempt to work around the spirit by following the letter.

If facebook discover a backup from 2012 on a tape that hasn't had items deleted, and adapt their processes so it doesn't happen again, they won't be hit with a $1b fine. If they deliberately refuse to delete people's data as a policy, they will be.

This one is at least...