France Fines Google Nearly $380 Million for Inserting Cookies and Ads Between Emails

Trump had warned nations that they would be hit with additional tariffs for ‘discriminatory’ digital taxes and regulations on U.S. tech companies.

The Google logo on a building at La Defense business and financial district in Courbevoie near Paris, on Sept. 1, 2020. Charles Platiau/Reuters

France imposed a significant fine on U.S. tech giant 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, according to a Sept. 3 announcement.

The statement was issued by the French data protection authority, the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), in response to a complaint filed in August accusing Google of privacy breaches.

Based on investigations, CNIL issued two fines totaling 325 million euros ($378 million) against Google and its Irish subsidiary on Sept. 1 and ordered the companies to cease displaying in-mail ads and placing ad cookies during account creation without valid user consent.

“Failing this, the companies will each have to pay a penalty of [100,000 euros] per day of delay,” it stated.

Google was found to display ads in the form of emails under the “Promotions” and “Social” Gmail tabs. When creating a new account, users were not clearly informed that the deposit of advertising cookies was a prerequisite to accessing Google’s services. Consent obtained in this context was “not valid” and violated French data privacy laws, CNIL stated.

The fines reflect the number of Gmail users residing in France.

While 53 million individuals had “illegally” seen the ads in the Gmail tabs, the cookie breach concerned more than 74 million accounts, according to the regulator.

CNIL said Google companies remained “negligent,” as they were earlier sanctioned in 2020 and 2021 for cookie breaches.

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, a Google spokesperson said the company was reviewing the decision.

“People have always been able to control the ads they see in our products,“ the spokesperson said. ”Over the last two years, as the CNIL has acknowledged, we made additional updates to address their concerns, including an easy way to decline personalized ads in one click when creating a Google account, and changes to the way ads are presented in Gmail.”

Trump’s Warning

U.S. tech companies are often found in breach of strict European laws.

The laws tackle various issues ranging from alleged disinformation to privacy.

They target the platforms that have large market presence, which the European Union has designated as “Very Large Online Platforms” and “Very Large Online Search Engines” such as U.S. companies Google, Meta, and Microsoft and Chinese video app TikTok.

The EU’s “hate-speech” and “misinformation” laws and verdicts often contradict First Amendment protections that the United States is obligated to abide by.

On July 1, the bloc’s controversial Code of Practice on Disinformation was integrated into the Digital Services Act and became enforceable under EU law.

All large platforms must comply with their obligations under the law, including cutting advertising revenue for purveyors of disinformation, extending “fact-checking coverage across all EU Member States and languages,” and ensuring that platforms “make a more consistent use of fact-checking on their services.”

Besides disinformation, the bloc has found U.S. companies such as Google and Apple in violation of anti-competitive practices in their search results and app platforms.

In August, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that he would impose additional tariffs and export restrictions on countries that discriminate against U.S. tech companies.

“Digital Taxes, Digital Services Legislation, and Digital Markets Regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology,” Trump said in an Aug. 25 Truth Social post.

“They also, outrageously, give a complete pass to China’s largest Tech Companies. This must end, and end NOW!

“With this TRUTH, I put all Countries with Digital Taxes, Legislation, Rules, or Regulations, on notice that unless these discriminatory actions are removed, I, as President of the United States, will impose substantial additional Tariffs on that Country’s Exports to the U.S.A., and institute Export restrictions on our Highly Protected Technology and Chips.”

Shein Fined

On Sept. 1, along with fining Google, CNIL imposed a fine of 150 million euros ($174 million) on Chinese fashion retail company Shein’s Irish subsidiary for failing to comply with rules applicable to cookies placed on devices of users visiting Shein’s website.

CNIL said the fine amount was based on about 12 million people living in France who were visitors to the website.

CNIL found Shein placing advertising cookies on the devices of users “as soon as they arrived on the site, even before they interacted with the information banner to express a choice,” the statement reads.

The website banner that displayed the “Reject all” and “Accept” options did not contain any information about the advertising purpose of cookies.

CNIL said cookies were still placed even when users clicked the “Reject all” button.

It noted that Shein “had made changes to its website during the proceedings and that it was therefore not necessary to issue compliance orders.”

The Epoch Times contacted Shein for comment regarding the latest CNIL announcement but did not receive a response by publication time.