France: Issued Council of State ruling upholding CNIL EUR 100 million fine against Google over unlawful cookie policy

On 28 January 2022, the French Council of State issued a ruling upholding the fine imposed on Google by the National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms (CNIL). The court confirmed that CNIL has the authority to independently issue fines in regards to cookies without using the “one-stop-shop” mechanism outlined in the General Data Protection Regulation and noted that the sanctions are proportionate with the violations. The CNIL sanctioned Google on 7 December 2020, for three violations of article 82 of the French Data Protection Act. Specifically, Google has placed cookies on “Google.fr” without the consent of users, failed to inform users about the cookies, made impossible the cookies’ removal and used the cookies for advertising purposes. The CNIL fined Google a total of EUR 100 million, respectively EUR 60 million against Google LLC and EUR 40 million against Google Ireland Ltd.