The GDPR replaces the Data Protection Directive, which left the levels of penalty to the discretion of individual member states. In the UK, the maximum fine for a breach of the Data Protection Act (the British implementation of the DPD) is £500,000. You can see a full list of enforcement action taken by the Information Commissioner's Office at the link below. I defy you to find a single example of a monetary penalty that was disproportionate.
When it comes to getting the max fine at first strike. The GDPR is not the first law in the EU with teeth. There are strict laws about corruption, pollution and antitrust here as well. Do companies get dinged with max penalty from the start violating these laws, not that I've seen. Why should enforcement of the GDPR be different from the current laws?
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/04/1...
GDPR has strong language around the purpose of fines and the kinds of considerations that should be made before imposing them. Being overly punitive, especially if a company shows good faith effort to comply, would only welcome judicial oversight. What would the EU gain in such a scenario? And what could the EU lose in such a scenario?
It gains the millions of dollars from the fines, in addition to aiding local EU competitors by bankrupting or hobbling their international foes. It loses nothing.
You can’t see why that’s an incentive and indeed an invitation to abuse GDPR?
First, I have significant trouble believing that the entire European Union would collude to attack international companies in favour of local companies. For a perfect example of this, do some research into the International Procurement Instrument. The IPI is an example of when the EU as a whole has bent over backwards to make sure that non-EU companies have fair access to EU public contracts, even if the playing fields are not level and EU companies don't have equivalent access to the non-EU markets. I assume that you're North American (I am too), so reading about the IPI will seem like comedy hour at Bizarro world, particularly when you see how difficult protectionism is in the EU.
Second, it's worth noting that your scenario as described gets uncomfortably close to a definition of passive corruption. Again, I have significant trouble believing that you could get so many people to agree to do something so potentially explosive.
And third, the EU currently has a very strong tool in its arsenal to enhance data security. The GDPR is very strong because it's ambiguous and people like you are scared of it. The moment that GDPR starts to face legal challenges, that ambiguity will get chipped away.
$20 million in fines that - despite the protestations of everyone that has ever commented in these threads - can be imposed for a first, single violation, without any warnings. If they meant for there to be any safeguards for companies, that language would have been built into the GDPR. But it wasn't. There are no limits, other than $10/$20 million.