goo

Cookies: the French Privacy Guarantor (the "CNIL") sanctions GOOGLE for a total of 150 million euros and FACEBOOK for 60 million euros for failing to comply with French privacy legislation.

On January 6, following investigations, the CNIL found that the sites facebook.com, google.fr and youtube.com do not allow users to refuse cookies as easily as they accept them. The CNIL thus fined FACEBOOK 60 million euros and GOOGLE 150 million euros and ordered them to comply within three months. The French authority noted, in particular, that the sites facebook.com, google.fr and youtube.com offer a button that allows the user to immediately accept cookies, while they do not provide an equivalent solution (button or other) that allows the user to refuse, in an equally simple way the use of the same cookies. Indeed, the websites under scrutiny by the CNIL provided for several clicks to refuse all cookies and only one click to accept them, thus limiting the freedom of consent, which is provided for as a fundamental element by Art. 82 of the French Privacy Law, as well as by the GDPR. In addition to the payment of the aforementioned penalties, Google and Facebook will have to comply with the CNIL's requirements within 3 months, providing users with a way to reject cookies that is as simple as accepting them. Failing this, companies will have to pay a penalty of 100,000 euros for each day of delay. These two decisions are part of the comprehensive compliance strategy launched by the CNIL over the past two years against French and foreign operators who publish websites with many visits and who engage in practices that are contrary to the legislation on cookies. Since March 31, 2021, when the deadline expired for websites and mobile applications to comply with the new cookie rules, the CNIL has taken nearly 100 corrective measures (orders and sanctions) related to non-compliance with cookie legislation. On the Italian landscape regarding cookies, we point out the Cookies Guidelines published by the Privacy Guarantor and entered into force last January 10, 2022, the details of which are provided, on our Blog