EU issued over €1.2bn in GDPR fines in 2025 as multiple data breaches bite

• Personal data breach reports rose 22% year-over-year in 2025
• Ireland has issued some of the GDPR's biggest fines, including 2025's biggest
• Geopolitical tensions, new tech and new laws are all to blame

European regulators handed out over €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) in GDPR-related fines throughout 2025, marking only a small increase compared with the year before despite a sharp rise in data breach notifications.

Data from DLA Piper found regulators handled an average of 443 personal data breach reports every single day from January 28, 2025 onwards, marking a considerable 22% rise compared with 2024. This was also the first year that breach notifications exceeded the 400 mark since GDPR came into force.

But instead of blaming the increase on one single cause, DLA Piper suggests a combination of multiple factors was responsible for the breaches.