The True Cost of Non-Compliance: Europe’s Biggest Fines in 2024–25

The True Cost of Non-Compliance: Europe’s Biggest Document-Related Fines in 2024–25

Non-Compliance Isn’t Cheap

In 2024 and 2025, European regulators sent a clear message: data compliance failures—especially around document handling—carry serious financial consequences. GDPR enforcement surged across sectors, with fines totalling more than €3 billion in 2025 alone, much of it linked to poor documentation practices, weak retention policies, and fragmented governance.

The message is clear: non-compliance costs far more than compliance ever will.

The Numbers Behind the Risk

Europe’s data authorities handed out some of the highest penalties in history:

• Meta was fined €1.2 billion for unlawful data transfers—underlining the importance of traceable, well-documented consent and data handling.

• In Germany, a real estate company was fined €14.5 million for retaining employee and tenant records indefinitely—wage slips, contracts, tax IDs, and insurance data, all held with no time limit.

• A German hospital was fined €400,000 for failing to purge sensitive patient data in line with retention laws.

• In Finland, an online retailer paid €856,000 for keeping customer account data indefinitely.

• France’s CNIL fined a company €100,000 for keeping user accounts and advertising data longer than justified, and for misstating its retention periods.

Beyond Europe, similar laws and penalties are taking hold in Brazil (LGPD), China (PIPL), and South Africa (POPIA). In every case, regulators demand clearly defined retention and disposal policies, backed by audit trails.

The Hidden Cost of Manual Compliance

Even when fines are avoided, the economic impact of manual compliance is immense.

Research shows HR professionals spend 70% of their time on service delivery, record-keeping, and compliance. PwC estimates that 7.5% of HR documents go missing and 3% are misfiled, each lost file costing roughly €120 to locate and €220 to recreate.Gartner reports that the cost of non-compliance (fines, remediation, reputational loss) is 2.7x higher than the cost of maintaining compliance. Meanwhile, GlobalScape found the average cost of non-compliance has risen to $14.82 million, a 45% increase since 2011.

Manual document management drains time and exposes organizations to unnecessary risk. Spreadsheets, inbox audits, and calendar reminders are no longer enough to meet complex retention laws across jurisdictions.

What Went Wrong

Most 2024–25 fines shared the same root causes:

• Manual retention schedules that failed to meet local legal timelines

• Inability to enforce legal holds during investigations or restructures

• Fragmented systems with no centralized document governance

• Expired or missing HR documentation, such as visas, training records, or certifications

• No audit-ready trail to prove lawful retention or deletion

These aren’t just technical failures—they’re structural weaknesses. They drain productivity, undermine trust, and expose organizations to multimillion-euro risk.

The Smarter Path Forward

Modern compliance is no longer a paperwork problem—it’s a data and automation challenge.

Tools like Nimbeely’s Document Compliance Pro, built on Workday Extend, help organizations move from reactive compliance to proactive resilience by:

• Automating retention and purging based on local laws including the research/update of rules

• Enforcing legal holds and distributing policies in bulk when investigations or audits arise

• Using AI to tag, categorise, and locate documents instantly—eliminating the 7.5% loss rate seen in manual systems

• Providing Workday-native, audit-ready workflows with full encryption and access control

By embedding compliance directly inside Workday, organizations can ensure every record—employment contract, visa, certificate, payslip (is stored, retained, or purged according to rule, not risk).

From Burden to Advantage

In today’s regulatory climate, document compliance isn’t optional—it’s strategic. The cost of getting it wrong is measured in millions; the cost of getting it right is measured in efficiency, trust, and peace of mind.

Organisations that embrace automated compliance aren’t just avoiding fines—they’re future-proofing their operations. With AI-driven document agents managing retention, purging, and legal holds, compliance becomes a competitive advantage: faster audits, stronger governance, and resilient operations across EMEA.

The next generation of compliance is here.And it’s powered by intelligent agents that work inside Workday—keeping every document compliant, every record traceable, and every regulator satisfied.

Learn more about how Document Compliance Pro is redefining compliance automation at Workday Rising EMEA, Barcelona.