The French National Commission for Informatics and Freedom (CNIL) imposed a fine of 150 million euros and 60 million euros on Alphabet’s Google and Meta’s Facebook, respectively. The reason is that these two companies make it difficult for users to refuse the application of online cookies.
Karin Kiefer, CNIL’s director of data protection and sanctions, said accepting cookies was just one click away, while refusal should be just as easy, but the companies didn’t. Reuters reported that the watchdog claimed that facebook.com, google.fr and youtube.com set rules that do not allow users to easily refuse cookies.
In addition to the fines, the two companies have the next three months to revise their online rules to comply with the government order and must provide a simple solution, otherwise, they will be ordered to pay an additional 100,000 euros per day of delay.
Meta declined to comment, but a Google spokesman was quoted as saying the company had clarified its responsibilities to protect consumer trust and committed to further changes.
This is the second time the regulator has fined Google. The first time was in 2020 when Google’s French site did not ask visitors’ consent to save advertising cookies on computers without providing clear information about the action and its consequences.