Under current drafts of the legislation, fines would run as high as 100 million euros, ($137 million) or 5 percent of a company’s global annual revenue, whichever is higher, rather than a cap of 2 percent, which was the figure proposed by Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice, who wrote the original draft of the legislation.

Lawmakers want to pass the final bill before spring, partly to burnish their chances of success in European Parliament elections in May. That timetable is strongly supported by Ms. Reding.

European leaders are expected to meet in Brussels on Thursday and focus their discussions on using technology to drive economic growth and create jobs. A document circulated before the meeting also indicated that leaders planned to acknowledge a need “to foster the trust of consumers and businesses in the digital economy.”

The committee vote on Monday night, which Mr. Albrecht said had been delayed twice since April by intense lobbying, gives Mr. Albrecht a mandate to begin negotiating the final legislation with the European Council, the body representing member governments.

Two years ago, Washington successfully lobbied Europe to abandon a similar measure that would have shielded Europeans from requests by American authorities to share online data gathered by some of the biggest American Internet companies, many of whose users live in Europe.

For technology companies, the concern about the pending legislation is likely to focus more on the high fines for infractions, and on restrictions on sharing personal data that could limit their ability to gain revenue from advertising and offering new services.

Andrew Sheridan, an intellectual property lawyer at the firm Freshfields in London, said the level of fines was a concern to many companies. “The most dramatic part of the reforms are the potential financial penalties,” Mr. Sheridan said before the vote on Monday. “If you get data compliance wrong, there’s a lot more at stake.”As for the restrictions on data sharing with American authorities, Mr. Sheridan said he expected “a pragmatic compromise” in the end.