The American company Google and its Irish subsidiary were fined €325 million. Shein, through its Irish branch Infinite Styles Services Co Limited, was fined €150 million.
The National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) said that both companies skipped their responsibility to obtain the free and informed consent of internet users before placing advertising cookies.
France Government fined Google and Shein over cookie negligence
Google was fined for the third time in five years. CNIL inspectors criticized the company and its Irish unit for what they called repeated negligence.
“The panel finally considered that the companies had been negligent since they had previously been sanctioned by the CNIL on two occasions, in 2020 and 2021, for breaches related to trackers,” said CNIL. Those earlier fines added up to €250 million. CNIL sought a €525 million penalty for the latest violations.
Investigators looked into Google’s use of a so-called cookie wall when creating a Google account. This practice makes access conditional on accepting cookies. CNIL said this is not illegal in Google’s case but requires informed user consent, which was not given. Google was also accused of putting advertising banners between emails in its Gmail service for users who enabled “smart features.”
53 millions affected by cookie violations
CNIL noted this affected 53 million people in France. The regulator said the ads “constitute direct marketing” under European case law and should have needed prior approval. Google and its Irish subsidiary were given six months to comply. If they do not, both face fines of €100,000.
Regarding Shein, the company said it would appeal to France’s Council of State and the Court of Justice of the European Union. Shein told the French news agency AFP that the penalty was “totally disproportionate given the nature of the alleged grievances.”
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