LinkedIn Ireland has been fined €310 million by Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) for breaching the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by processing personal data of users to deliver targeted advertising without a valid legal basis. The investigation, prompted by a complaint from a French non-profit, found that LinkedIn's practices lacked lawfulness, fairness, and transparency, and the consent obtained from users was deemed neither freely given nor sufficiently informed. The company had relied on various legal bases such as 'consent', 'legitimate interests', and 'contractual necessity', which were all found invalid by the DPC. LinkedIn has been ordered to bring its data practices into compliance with EU regulations. This fine marks one of the largest GDPR penalties imposed on big tech to date, highlighting the regulatory scrutiny over data privacy practices in the EU.