The guidelines concerning the use of cookies are probably known by everyone by now. Also in France there are regulations concerning the use of cookies. Here the two companies Amazon and Google have violated them.
French data protection authority demands fine
Because the two companies used advertising cookies without informing users, the French Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) – the French data protection authority – imposed a fine. Google will be fined 100 million euros and Amazon will pay 35 million euros. According to the regulatory authority, the Amazon.fr and Google.fr websites have placed cookies on users’ computers without their consent and other information. According to the data protection authority, most of the cookies have been used for advertising purposes. The fine of 35 million euros goes to Amazon Europe Core. The fine of 100 million euros is divided between the two Google companies Google LLC with 60 million euros and Google Ireland Ltd. with 40 million euros.
Amazon does not agree with the decision!
Amazon has informed Bloomberg that it does not agree with the decision of the CNIL. According to Amazon, the company is already doing everything it can to comply with the law. Google has similar concerns. According to the company, the French legal regulations are not clear enough and are constantly being adapted. Google’s spokesperson said that “people who use Google expect us to respect their privacy whether they have a Google account or not”. The company has therefore already made some efforts to comply with the regulations. Google maintains strict internal data controls and also provides a secure infrastructure. According to Google, the legal regulations are “uncertain” and constantly evolving, which is why the Group is continuing its dialogue with the data protection authorities. The 100 million euro fine is the highest ever imposed by the French data protection authorities.
Measures are already being implemented
Following the allegations and investigations of the French data protection authorities, the two groups have now implemented a query on their websites. This now asks users for permission to use advertising cookies. The CNIL has already examined the measures implemented and criticized that the wording is not clear enough. Visitors are not openly shown that they can also object to the use of cookies. The data protection authority therefore considers the information content of the query to be too low. The authority has now given the companies three months to adapt the query. If no change is made, Google and Amazon will have to pay a fine of 100,000 euros for each additional day.
