The French data regulator fines Google and Facebook a total of $238 million

Google and Meta, formerly known as Facebook, must now pay a $238 million combined fine to France. CNIL, France’s data regulator, fined both companies because they violated the EU’s privacy rules. Both tech giants have made it easier for users to accept cookies on their websites, but they have not made it as simple for users to reject the tracking cookies.

CNIL stated that the sites: facebook.com, google.fr, and youtube.com offer immediate acceptance for tracking cookies only by tapping a button. However, these websites don’t offer a similar button for rejecting the cookies. Instead, they made it more difficult for users to refuse to be tracked by the websites.

Making it easier to accept cookies than to refuse them, according to the CNIL’s restricted committee, affects the user’s freedom of consent. When a user visits a website, they want to find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. By making the acceptance of the cookies easier than the refusal, Google and Meta influence the choice of the user in favor of consent.

CNIL fined Google €150 million ($170 million) and Meta €60 million ($68 million). In addition to the fines, CNIL mandated that Google and Meta provide a way for French users to reject tracking cookies as easily as they would accept them. Both companies were given three months to comply with the mandate. If they do not comply with the order, both companies will have to pay 100 000 euros ($113 000) per day as a penalty.

In a statement, Google said, “People trust us to respect their right to privacy and keep them safe. We understand our responsibility to protect that trust and are committing to further changes and active work with the CNIL in light of this decision under the ePrivacy Directive.”

Meta also made a statement according to the CNIL’s decision, saying, “We are reviewing the authority’s decision and remain committed to working with relevant authorities. Our cookie consent controls provide people with greater control over their data, including a new settings menu on Facebook and Instagram where people can revisit and manage their decisions at any time, and we continue to develop and improve these controls.”

The CNIL, France’s National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, is in charge of ensuring that the data privacy law is followed in the use of personal data in France.