The CNIL has just condemned Google to 325 million euros in fines For having failed in its obligations of transparency and consent. Two grievances are retained: a biased consent collection when creating a Google account and the display of advertisements in Gmail, assimilated to unlined electronic prospecting.
The French regulator criticizes Google for having conditioned access to Gmail to accept advertising cookies without offering a free and enlightened choice. Until October 2023, acceptance was made in two clicks against six to refuse the personalization of the announcements. Faced with CNIL checks, Google has changed the route, renamed “Express selection”, integrating an “refusing” button. If this iteration has corrected the initial imbalance between acceptance and refusal, the CNIL considers that the user is still not clearly informed that the creation of a Google account necessarily implies the deposit of advertising cookies and that consent is de facto invalid.
In Gmail, the announcements inserted in the tabs Promotions And Social networks are also reclassified in electronic prospecting. Presented in the same format as private emails, they create a risk of confusion and constitute an intrusion comparable to spam. The absence of explicit consent to their display is deemed constitutive of a breach.
The scope of this decision exceeds the financial sanction. For the first time, the CNIL requires announcements according to theUser experience, a lot of sense of meaning for the entire market, Because they imitate emails and occupy a space reserved for private communications, they must be treated as electronic prospecting subject to consent. This approach creates jurisprudence which could, in the future, inspire requalifications in other digital environments where advertising blurs the border between private space and sponsored content.
Impact for European companies
The stake exceeds Google and reconfigures the framework for all digital players.
- A new standard of conformity : biased interfaces and Dark patterns become legally risky. SMEs and startups will have to design neutral routes, offering a refusal as simple as acceptance.
- A competitive opportunity : European actors who bet on contextual advertising or paid models see their legitimacy reinforced. The CNIL validates that intrusive targeting is questionable, but not the non -personalized advertising.
- Increased pressure on foreign giants : Based on the EPRIVACY directive, the CNIL asserts itself in the face of the RGPD single window mechanism and imposes its rules on the GAFAM. This dynamic creates a more favorable terrain for European actors.
- A structuring effect on the advertising channel : agencies, advertisers and adtechs will have to redirect part of their budgets to less intrusive formats – contextual, thematic or premium advertising – where European publishers have an advantage.
With more than $ 350 billion in turnover in 2024 for alphabet, the financial impact of the sanction remains limited. But the obligation to comply, accompanied by a Monitoring 100,000 euros per day of delayrequires Google to review its interfaces and advertising practices. For the entire European market, the signal is structuring: advertising integrated into free services becomes legally more risky as soon as it blurs the border between private and commercial communication.
