French Court upholds €50 million fine against Google
The French supreme court for administrative justice Conseil d’État upheld the €50 million fine imposed last year on Google by the French data protection authority Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL). The fine was imposed in January 2019 for lack of transparency, inadequate information, and lack of valid consent regarding ads personalisation, therefore violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Google appealed the CNIL decision at the Conseil d’État.
In its statement, the Conseil État said that Google did not provide sufficiently clear and transparent information for Android users, and did not give them a chance to willingly consent to their private data being processed for ad personalisation. The Council also stated that CNIL’s record fine was not disproportionate ‘given the particular seriousness of the breaches committed, their continuous nature and duration, the ceilings provided for by the GDPR (up to 4% of turnover) and Google’s financial situation’.
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