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French watchdog fines Google €100m and Amazon €35m over cookies law breach

Google has been fined by a French watchdog. Photo: Truth Leem/Reuters
Google has been fined by a French watchdog. Photo: Truth Leem/Reuters

France’s data watchdog has fined Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and Amazon (AMZN) after accusing the tech giants of placing cookies on users’ computers without consent.

The French national commission on information and liberty (CNIL) announced both fines on Thursday. Google faces a €100m (£91m, $121m) hit for three breaches of French data protection law, and Amazon a €35m (£31m, $42m) penalty for two breaches.

The CNIL said both companies had placed advertising cookies on users’ computers “without obtaining prior consent and without providing adequate information.” Cookies are text files that allow websites to remember consumers and their past activity.

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Google makes “significant profits...deriving from the advertising income indirectly generated from data collected by the advertising cookies,” according to the watchdog. Meanwhile Amazon’s use of cookies makes possible personalised ads, enabling it to “significantly the visibility of its products in other websites,” it added.

The regulator said it had conducted several investigations into Amazon between last December and May, and an online investigation into Google in March.

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In both cases, it found cookies were automatically placed on users’ computers “without any action required on his or her part.” Placing non-essential cookies without consent is forbidden under France’s data protection act.

A CNIL committee said the amount of the fines and the decision to make them public were “justified by the seriousness of the breaches observed” of French data protection law. A €60m penalty was imposed on Google LLC in the US and another €40m penalty on Google Ireland Limited, while Amazon Europe Core received the €35m fine on the e-commerce giant.

Google’s practices affect almost 50 million users in France, according to the watchdog. It added that “millions” of people in France were similarly affected by the use of cookies on the Amazon.fr site.

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The regulator said Google had stopped automatically placing advertising cookies on arrival on the google.fr site in September. But it said a new information banner still failed to tell users how cookies were used or that they could refuse them.

It also said Google users still had advertising cookies stored on their computers even when they had de-activated ad personalisation, making Google’s “opposition mechanism...partially defective.”

Amazon has also stopped placing cookies without users’ consent, according to the watchdog. But the e-commerce firm was similarly warned its new information banner did not let users understand cookies were mainly used to propose personalised ads, and could be refused.

Both companies have been told to “adequately” inform individuals about cookie use within three months, or face a penalty of €100,000 a day for delays.

An Amazon spokesperson said: “We disagree with the CNIL’s decision. Protecting the privacy of our customers has always been a top priority for Amazon.

“We continuously update our privacy practices to ensure that we meet the evolving needs and expectations of customers and regulators and fully comply with all applicable laws in every country in which we operate.”

He added that cookies allowed the company to understand customers’ site use, make improvements and serve ads, but that Amazon had now updated the information and choices provided to customers.

Google has been approached for comment.