EU has also realized that without enforcement, and deterrence, American companies will take advantage of European citizens.

Just take a look how much European banks are fined by the USA for not following their regulations. It’s many billions of dollars.

https://www.enzuzo.com/blog/biggest-compliance-fines

or … EU enforces strict privacy laws to protect individuals, and some companies that don't respect these regulations are getting fined as a result.

Or they could just comply with local laws and not get fined.

> EU has realized American companies got a hell lot of expendable cash so they enjoy milking them xD

EU has realised American companies have become highly optimised wealth extraction machines and aren't providing nearly as much value as they are extracting, while also violating local privacy laws and skirting taxes.

The value void that Uber leaves will easily be filled, which is merely an app to buy services that have existed as long as the horse and cart. Keeping Uber benefits no one in the EU.

It's an indirect Marshall plan for europe. Since EU is unable to grow a shred of infotech, at least give them some scraps to add to the EU budget (At least, i hope that is where the fines end up).

European organizations are often fined as well, it's just that the amount of fines depends on the income of an organization. This means that big American companies jump out more, because they tend to have bigger incomes. Here's a database of fines for GDPR:

https://www.enforcementtracker.com/

Ah yes, the poor-poor American companies who assume that they God-given right to every single scrap of data on their users that they possibly can. Under the guise of "we and our 1400 partners would really like to track your every breath"