Vodafone Hit with €45M GDPR Penalty: A Wake-Up Call for Telecom

Germany’s Federal Data Protection Authority (BfDI) has issued a €45 million (~$51.4 million) fine against Vodafone GmbH for gross violations of the EU’s GDPR. The penalties target both negligent partner oversight and serious authentication flaws, highlighting how even industry leaders in telecom can fall prey to compliance gaps.

Incident Overview

The investigation by BfDI uncovered two major issues with Vodafone. Firstly, the company failed to properly vet and supervise its partner agencies, which engaged in malicious activities that led to the creation of fake or altered customer contracts. This breach of GDPR Article 28 resulted in a fine of €15 million. Secondly, significant flaws in the authentication process of the MeinVodafone portal and customer hotline allowed unauthorized access to eSIMs, leading to an additional €30 million fine under the GDPR. The total penalty of €45 million underscores the critical importance of securing both third-party networks and customer-facing systems.

GDPR-Specific Non-Compliance

This enforcement case centers on two key violations of the GDPR. Under Article 28, Vodafone did not fulfill its responsibilities as a data controller by failing to manage risks associated with third parties; as a result, partner employees were able to access and manipulate data without adequate oversight. Additionally, according to Article 32, the company's weaknesses in authentication represented insufficient technical and organizational protections, allowing unauthorized access to sensitive user data. The Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit (BfDI) has also initiated a follow-up audit to ensure that Vodafone's corrective actions are effective.

Other Major 2025 GDPR Fines

Vodafone’s €45 million penalty is one of several significant GDPR enforcement actions in 2025. Notably:

• TikTok faced a record-breaking €530 million fine in May 2025 from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) for unlawfully transferring the personal data of EU citizens, including minors, to servers in China.

• Orange Espagne, the Spanish telecom subsidiary of Orange Group, was fined €1.2 million by Spain’s data protection authority (AEPD) due to repeated incidents of SIM-swap fraud.

Together, these cases highlight the increasingly aggressive enforcement posture of European regulators and the broad scope of GDPR. Companies operating in the EU are expected to adhere not only to technical standards but also to ethical practices in how they handle and communicate about personal data.

How Cytopus Can Help Your Business

In response to such compliance and security failures, Cytopus provides robust solutions for organizations seeking to avoid similar pitfalls:

• Third-Party and Risk Assessment: Ensure all vendors and sales partners undergo secure onboarding, ongoing audits, and compliance controls aligned with GDPR and other frameworks.

• Continuous Vulnerability Management: Our platform performs real-time scans to detect and remediate vulnerabilities across your enterprise environment, before they can be exploited.

• Security Compliance and Risk Assessment: We help organizations align their security posture with leading frameworks like GDPR, CRA, DORA, and NIS2, minimizing regulatory exposure.

• Threat Intelligence and Threat Detection: Leveraging AI-driven analysis, Cytopus ingests global threat feeds to detect exploitation attempts against zero-days and critical flaws.

• Continuous Monitoring and Incident Response: Cytopus provides 24/7 security operations, combining automated detection with expert-led incident response to swiftly contain and address breaches.

• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning: We help develop and validate disaster recovery and business continuity plans to ensure minimal disruption in the event of security incidents