French data regulator CNIL will fine Google €150 million and Facebook €60 million for violating EU privacy rules.

According to a document seen by POLITICO, CNIL will fine Google’s United States and Ireland operations €90 million and €60 million, respectively, and Facebook’s Irish arm €60 million for not allowing French users to easily refuse cookie tracking technology.

The CNIL upheld the penalties Thursday morning, posting the rulings against Google and Facebook on its website.

Google and Facebook will also face a €100,000 daily fine if they don’t fix their practices within three months of the CNIL’s decision; This applies to Google’s google.fr and youtube.fr websites as well as Facebook’s French platform.

“We are reviewing the agency’s decision and remain committed to working with relevant authorities,” said a spokesperson for Facebook’s holding company Meta. “Our cookie consent controls give people more control over their data, including a new settings menu on Facebook and Instagram where people can revisit at any time and manage their decisions,” he added. 

A Google spokesperson said: “People trust us to respect their privacy rights and keep them safe, we recognize our responsibility to maintain that trust, and are committed to further changes and active work with the CNIL in light of this decision under the ePrivacy Guidelines.”

In December 2020, CNIL fined Amazon and Google €35 million and €100 million for cookie violations under ePrivacy rules. The agency also fined Google 50 million Euros under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Under the GDPR, only the privacy agency in a company’s country of establishment in the EU can bring a direct action against that company. For Facebook and Google, this would be the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) as both are legally based in Dublin. 

However, as the breaches are covered by the ePrivacy Directive, which governs the privacy of communications rather than GDPR, the French regulator can now take direct action against US multinationals.

Google is still battling the previous case in the Council of State, France’s highest court for cases involving public administration. A person directly involved in the matter said that the company is likely to oppose these new fines and will go to the French top court again.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/google-facebook-face-big-privacy-fines-in-france/