Several times the CNIL has sanctioned actors for breach of the law:
- In December 2020, Google was fined 100 million euros for having placed advertising cookies without the prior consent of Internet users or satisfactory information;
- In December 2020, Amazon was fined 35 million euros for the same breaches;
- In July 2021, the Société du Figaro was fined 50,000 euros for depositing cookies before any action by the Internet user (acceptance or refusal of cookies).
Despite these sanctions and the formal notices issued by the CNIL , some economic players are still reluctant to comply.
In December 2021, CNIL again penalized Google for failure to do so. This time, the CNIL found that to give consent to the reading and/or writing of cookies, the Internet user visiting the "google.fr" page only had to click on the "I accept" button on the pop-up window, which made this window disappear and allowed him to continue his navigation. On the other hand, the Internet user visiting this same home page and wishing to refuse cookies had to perform at least five actions. The CNIL thus considers that making the mechanism for refusing cookies more complex than that consisting in accepting them, in reality amounts to discouraging Internet users from refusing cookies and encouraging them to favor the ease of the "I accept" button. Under these conditions the consent of the Internet user is not free and the company is in default.
Google was thus fined 150 million euros and ordered to comply within three months under a penalty of 100,000 euros per day of delay. Google is not the only company to have been sanctioned in December 2021, Facebook also up to 60 million for the same reasons.
A well-configured and complete cookie banner is now absolutely necessary on all websites depositing cookies. We are at your disposal to assist you in this configuration and on the related legislation.
