Google fined EUR 325M by France’s CNI

On September 1, France’s CNIL imposed a fine of EUR 325M on Google for displaying advertisements between Gmail users’ emails without their consent and for placing cookies when creating Google accounts, without valid consent of French users. Following a complaint filed by the organization None Of Your Business on August 24, 2022, the CNIL conducted several inspections between 2022 and 2023 on Gmail messaging service and on the process of creating a Google account. The investigations revealed that GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED and GOOGLE LLC displayed advertisements in the form of emails among the emails in the “Promotions” and “Social” tabs of the Gmail messaging service. The decision also imposes an order requiring the companies to implement, within six months, measures to cease displaying advertisements between emails in the Gmail service users’ mailboxes without prior consent and to ensure valid consent from users for the placement of advertising cookies when creating a Google account. Failing this, the companies will each have to pay a penalty of EUR 100,000 per day of delay.