Google can look forward to a €90 million French fine and Meta faces a €60 million fine. Both companies are still not complying with European privacy rules.
French data regulator CNIL is going to impose millions in fines on Google and Meta. This is what Politico knows. Google may pay 90 million euros, Meta will get away with 60 million euros for now. According to CNIL, both companies are still not complying with European rules on privacy. Specifically, French users cannot easily choose to deactivate tracking cookies.
Generally, it is up to the country where a company has its European headquarters to issue any fines. In practice, the Irish data privacy regulator thus comes under a great deal of responsibility. In this case, however, France can invoke the e-Privacy regulation in place of the GDPR, giving it the authority to act on its own. Previously, CNIL also asserted itself with fines of 35 million and 100 million euros for Google and Amazon, respectively. Google is currently still appealing that first fine.
Symbolic penance
The action of the French has great symbolic value. In Ireland, the DPC is failing to make a statement in an important case against Facebook (and thus Meta), despite rulings by the European Court of Justice.
The fines imposed by France in this case are not that high considering the billion-dollar turnover of the culprits. France does impose a penalty of 100,000 euros on the two companies for each day that the privacy problem is not rectified.
Nonchalant attitude Meta
For its part, Meta does not take European rules too closely. The company does not even shy away from viewing EU case law as a directive on a napkin, and putting forward its own interpretations as equally valid. The current fines are thus part of a broader European effort to keep U.S. tech giants in line.
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