France’s data protection agency announced today that it has fined Amazon.com Inc.’s French warehouses unit 32 million euros ($35 million) for using an “excessively intrusive” surveillance system to keep track of workers.

The French Data Protection Authority, or CNIL, said the systems employed by Amazon France Logistique that keep an eye on workers for various reasons, including to enhance productivity, were a breach of the European Union’s new privacy rules under the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.

Under GPPR, big U.S. tech companies have been fined left, right and center. This latest transgression of the rules comes from a 2019 complaint made by Amazon workers in France, which subsequently reached the press and led to an investigation. Amazon was first informed of the fine on Dec. 27, 2023, but it wasn’t made public until now.

CNIL said workers were under pressure to perform, knowing surveillance systems were continually monitoring what they did. One such apparatus was “stow machine guns” that keep track of hand speeds when staff are scanning packages. The watchdog said there were also artificial intelligence systems that measure a worker’s “idle time.”

“We strongly disagree with the CNIL’s conclusions, which are factually incorrect, and we reserve the right to file an appeal,” Amazon said in a statement. “Warehouse management systems are industry standard and are necessary for ensuring the safety, quality, and efficiency of operations and to track the storage of inventory and processing of packages on time and in line with customer expectations.”

According to Amazon, the stow machine guns are there to ensure that the worker doesn’t scan too quickly, which would be under 1.25 seconds. Amazon said such systems are required in order to move the vast number of packages that go through a warehouse every day. The guns ensure packages are not being dealt with too speedily or too slowly.

The company was also criticized for using surveillance tools that measure “periods of inactivity” or “idle time.” This used to be anything over 10 minutes, but now Amazon has changed it to 30 minutes. Amazon said time monitoring was only to ensure that breakdowns in the chain of movement could be rectified when they occurred.

In the recent past, Amazon and its alleged bad treatment of warehouse workers in the U.S. was a well-published issue, but the e-commerce giant seems to have taken the necessary steps to – mostly –stay out of the news in this regard.

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