"Scanner Surveillance" French Amazon Logistics Company Fined 46.5 Billion Won

The French logistics company of Amazon, the world's largest online shopping mall, was fined a large sum for monitoring employees' work using scanners.

On the 23rd (local time), the French data protection and supervisory authority, the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libert?s (CNIL), announced that it had imposed a fine of 32 million euros (approximately 46.5 billion KRW) on Amazon France Logistique.

Employees of this company, which manages Amazon logistics, use scanners to store, move, and prepare shipments. The company introduced a system that monitors attendance and work performance by using data recorded every time employees perform scanning tasks.

The system measured the time when the scanner was not operating to check employees' rest periods during work and monitored whether the interval between scans exceeded 1.25 seconds. This was because scanning items too quickly was considered likely to cause errors.

While conducting work monitoring using scanners in this way, the company did not properly inform employees of this fact. The related data was stored for 31 days. CNIL stated, "With this system, employees were closely monitored for all tasks performed with the scanner and subjected to continuous pressure," adding, "The restrictions imposed on employees directly contributed to the company's economic benefits and allowed it to gain a competitive advantage over other companies in the online sales sector."

CNIL found that the company violated data protection regulations, including the principle of data minimization, and imposed a fine equivalent to about 3% of its sales.

Regarding this, an Amazon spokesperson told AFP that it is a "necessary system to ensure security, quality, and efficiency" and expressed the intention to appeal the CNIL decision.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.