France Uses New EU Privacy Law to Fine Google $56.8 Million

(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.'s Google was at the receiving end of a hefty fine of 50 million euros ($56.8 million) by France's privacy regulator, which used its new powers to levy much higher penalties for the first time under European Union data protection rules.

France's data authority CNIL said the amount of the fine was “justified by the severity of the infringements observed regarding the essential principles” of the EU's General Data Protection Rules, or GDPR. They are “transparency, information and consent,” it said Monday in a statement.

The EU rules took effect across the 28-nation bloc on May 25, and gave national privacy regulators equal powers to fine companies as much as 4 percent of global annual sales for the most serious violations. Google has come under CNIL's scrutiny many times before, but under the old rules, fines couldn't exceed the maximum of 150,000 euros. While this is the first time CNIL has benefited from the new rules, several other countries have issued fines.

The decision can be appealed. It was triggered by two complaints, one from noyb, a group created by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems. Google was accused of forcing users to agree to new privacy policies.

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“People expect high standards of transparency and control from us,” Google said in an emailed statement. “We're deeply committed to meeting those expectations and the consent requirements of the GDPR. We're studying the decision to determine our next steps.”

Schrems said his group is “very pleased” to see the new EU rules being applied. “It is important that the authorities make it clear that simply claiming to be compliant is not enough.”

CNIL said it found two types of violations of EU law, one for lack of transparency and information, the other for not having a legal basis to process user data for personalized advertisements.

“Despite the measures implemented by Google (documentation and configuration tools), the infringements observed deprive the users of essential guarantees regarding processing operations that can reveal important parts of their private life since they are based on a huge amount of data, a wide variety of services and almost unlimited possible combinations,” CNIL said.

The breach also “is not a one-off, time-limited, infringement,” it said.

The decision comes just days after noyb filed a new series of privacy complaints across Europe, this time targeting companies that include Google's YouTube, Amazon.com Inc., and Netflix Inc.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser, Nate Lanxon

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