Europe has continued to tighten its grip on antitrust, holding the Big Tech responsible on issues that had been previously ignored. With almost each month passed, a member of the Big Tech gets served a fine for violating an antitrust rule which has kept getting updated to cover emerging innovations.
To this end, France’s data privacy watchdog, Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), on Thursday, fined Google and Facebook (yes, Meta) a combined €210m. The fine came after the duo was found guilty of manipulating cookies to their own advantage.
Google received €150 million while Facebook got a €60 million share of the fine for hampering users’ ability to stop the companies tracking their online activity. The CNIL said the companies make it difficult for internet users to refuse cookies.
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“When you accept cookies, it’s done in just one click,” said Karin Kiefer, CNIL’s head of data protection and sanctions. “Rejecting cookies should be as easy as accepting them.”
The CNIL, like the European GDPR, (general data protection regulation) has prioritized user privacy in its antitrust regulation, making consumers’ ability to reject cookies a serious issue.
The watchdog said the facebook.com, google.fr and youtube.com websites deliberately made it difficult for users to refuse cookies. “Several clicks are required to refuse all cookies, as opposed to a single one to accept them,” it said about Facebook.
Reacting to the fine, a Google spokesperson they will work with the regulator “in light of this decision.”
“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,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for Facebook’s parent company, Meta, said: “??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 said the companies had three months to comply with its orders, including making it easier for French users to decline cookies, or face extra penalty payments of €100,000 for every day of delay.
Per The Guardian, the CNIL strengthened consent rights over ad trackers in 2020, saying websites operating in France should keep a register of internet users’ refusal to accept cookies for at least six months. It also said internet users should be able to easily reconsider any initial agreement concerning cookies via a weblink or an icon that should be visible on all pages of a website.
Facebook’s ad sales had been severely impacted by updated Apple’s iOS privacy policy, which gives iPhone users the choice to stop Facebook from tracking them for targeted ads. The privacy policy update, which came into force mid-last year saw Facebook’s ad sales decline greatly as only about 25% of iPhone users choose to allow tracking.
The CNIL rule means that Facebook will likely lose more in ad sales as consumers are given the choice to easily decline cookies.