[German]French CNIL issued a fine of 60 million euros against Microsoft Ireland on December 19, 2022. It is about the fact that Microsoft (in the Bing search engine) had not set up a mechanism that allows to reject cookies as easily as to accept them.
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This is according to a statement (frensh) from the CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés). The CNIL is France's national data protection authority, based in Paris. The CNIL took action following a complaint about the conditions for depositing cookies on "bing.com" and carried out several checks on the website in September 2020 and May 2021..
The CNIL found that when a user visited this website, cookies were placed on their endpoint device without their consent, even though they were used for advertising purposes, among other things. Specifically, it was the case that when the search engine "bing.com" was visited, a cookie was automatically placed on a user's terminal device without any request being made. The cookie pursued several purposes, including purposes of combating advertising fraud, writes the CNIL.
If the user continued to surf the search engine site, a cookie was placed on his terminal for advertising purposes without his consent being obtained. According to GDPR in Europe, both cookies may only be deposited after user consent. The auditors also noted that there was no button with which one could reject the deposit of cookies as easily as accept them.
The search engine offered a button to accept cookies immediately, but no equivalent solution (reject button or similar) that would have allowed the Internet user to reject the cookies so easily. To reject all cookies, two clicks were required, to accept them only one click.
As a result, a fine of 60 million euros has now been issued against Microsoft Ireland. The CNIL based this amount on the extent of the processing, the number of data subjects, and the profits the company makes from advertising revenue generated indirectly from data collected using cookies.
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In addition to the administrative fine, the CNIL's responsible body also issued a penalty payment order to ensure that the company obtains the consent of French residents on the "bing.com" website within three months before placing cookies and trackers on their terminal equipment for advertising purposes. Otherwise, the company faces the payment of a penalty of 60,000 Euros per day. (via)
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