OpenAI's €15M ChatGPT fine, annulled in 2026
€15M
≈ $16.2M at the time
Garante per la protezione dei dati personali
Italy · 2024
Status: Annulled
What happened
Italy's Garante alleged that ChatGPT was trained on personal data without an adequate legal basis, failed transparency obligations, did not report a March 2023 breach, and lacked age verification for minors. In March 2026 the Court of Rome annulled the fine on procedural grounds, not because the practices were ruled lawful.
The annulment turned on jurisdiction: Ireland's DPC had become lead authority for OpenAI under the GDPR one-stop-shop mechanism. Irish scrutiny of OpenAI continues, so the underlying questions remain open.
How it affected users
Users, including minors, had no clear way to understand or object to their data being used for AI training; about 440 Italian users were affected by the unreported breach.
Status timeline
Dec 20, 2024
Garante fines OpenAI €15M and orders a public information campaign.
Mar 1, 2026
Court of Rome annuls the fine on procedural grounds; the Irish DPC had become lead authority.
Effective amount: none owed
Sources
Last verified 2026-07-02. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
Cite this entry
Deepak Gupta, "OpenAI's €15M ChatGPT fine, annulled in 2026," Tech Fines Directory, guptadeepak.com, 2024-12-20. https://guptadeepak.com/tech-fines/violation/openai-italy-garante-2024/