Google ordered to pay €365 million for illegal data collection
According to US media, the decision was made on Wednesday by a jury in a federal court in San Francisco, in the southwestern state of California.
The jury found the internet giant guilty of invasion of privacy for continuing to collect private data from these users, even after having disabled this setting.
This decision came hours after the French authority for the protection of privacy on the internet, the National Commission for Informatics and Liberties (CNIL), also imposed a record fine of 325 million euros on Google for violating legislation on cookies.
These trackers, essential for online advertising and integrated into the business model of numerous platforms, have been subject to increased scrutiny by the French authorities for years.
Google was also sanctioned for violating the law regarding advertising.
A US federal judge on Tuesday ordered an overhaul of Google's search engine, the Associated Press (AP) reported today.
Lusa | 07:38 - 09/03/2025At the same time, the CNIL imposed a €150 million fine on the Asian ready-to-wear conglomerate Shein, also for violating cookie legislation.
"We are studying the content of the decision," arguing that "users have always had the ability to control the ads they see in products" and that updates have already been made "to address the CNIL's concerns," a Google spokesperson said.
Google failed to comply with its obligations to obtain free and informed consent from internet users before collecting advertising cookies. These devices, which track internet users' activity to target advertising to internet users, are strictly governed by law.
The two fines announced on Wednesday are part of "the overall compliance strategy initiated by the CNIL more than five years ago regarding trackers, which targets in particular those involved in high-frequency websites and services," the commission stressed.
As for Google, this is the third time that Google has been subject to a CNIL sanction related to cookies.
In a statement, the authority highlighted the group's "negligence", which was hit in 2020 with a fine of 100 million euros and in 2021 with another of 150 million.
Shein and Google have four months to appeal the decision.
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