Google has been fined 403 million euros ($463 million) for violating the European Union’s stringent privacy regulations, owing to its mishandling of users’ location data, the bloc’s data privacy watchdog announced on Monday.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said its investigation found that Google had not lawfully or fairly processed location data in users’ Web & App Activity, a Google setting that tracks browsing and search history, and in their Location History, a service that maps places they’ve been with their mobile phones.

Regulators also found that the company had failed to be lawful, fair and transparent when processing personal data in its Location Accuracy feature within the Android mobile operating system.

Ireland functions as the lead regulator for Google across the 27-nation EU, given that the U.S. tech giant’s European headquarters is situated in Dublin.

The investigation, which was opened six years ago, examined how Google applied the EU's privacy rulebook, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, from when it took effect in 2018 until February 2020.

“This case centres on historical policies that have since been revised,” Google said in a statement.

“Since 2019, we have substantially transformed our practices and introduced robust tools that render the management of location data straightforward.”

Regulators asserted that location data constitutes a category of personal data amassed by Google, which can be leveraged to deduce an individual's whereabouts.

“Location data can bring both benefits and harms to individuals,” Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said.

“It can greatly enhance the usefulness of online services, but it can also reveal a significant amount of information about an individual, including information that is inherently private.”

It constitutes the fourth-largest EU privacy fine imposed by the Irish watchdog, which has previously levied more substantial penalties against TikTok and Meta, including a 1.2 billion euro fine for Meta.

The regulator stated that it continues to pursue three additional privacy investigations concerning Google.