France fines Google, SHEIN for undercooked cookie policies that led to crummy privacy
- Reference: 1756965611
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/04/france_google_shein_cookie_fines/
- Source link:
The Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL) [1]announced the fines on Wednesday, and [2]explained it found Google broke local laws as its signup process for new accounts, which encouraged users to approve use of cookies tied to advertising services, but didn’t inform them that accepting those cookies was a condition for using Google's services.
The CNIL found Google’s cookie advice mean locals created 74 million accounts under circumstances that breached French law, and 53 million people therefore saw ads in the "Promotions" and "Social" tabs of their email accounts.
[3]
The regulator fined Google LLC € 200 million ($233 million) and levied a €125 million ($145 million) fine against Google Ireland for its role in the mess.
[4]
[5]
CNIL [6]ordered Chinese e-tailer SHEIN to pay €150 million ($175 million) for not properly securing permission before dropping cookies on 12 million people residing in France who visited shein.com.
The regulator found the Chinese site didn’t properly explain how it used cookies, opting out of cookies had no effect because even if users clicked “Reject All” Shein sent more cookies anyway, and kept reading those already present.
[7]
CNIL’s notice points out that in recent years it’s found and punished many similar misuses of cookies, suggesting Shein should have understood its obligations.
Shein intends to appeal the decision. Google is reviewing it.
[8]KLM, Air France latest major organizations looted for customer data
[9]X tells the French police 'non' to its request for algorithmic data
[10]Google tweaks Play Store fees to keep Euro watchdogs at bay
[11]EU kicks off an inquiry into Google's AI model
Diplomats are probably also poring over the CNIL’s decision, given US president Donald Trump’s recent [12]warning that he could impose tariffs on nations which dare to regulate US tech companies.
Trump seems to regard other sovereign nations’ digital regulations as illegitimate if they cost American companies money or slow their growth. CNIL argues that Google and Shein harmed local consumers by breaching their privacy.
Another reason for Trump’s ire is that he feels regulators don’t target Chinese companies. CNIL has proved him wrong on this occasion. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.cnil.fr/fr/regulation-des-cookies-la-cnil-poursuit-le-plan-daction-initie-en-2019-et-prononce-deux-amendes
[2] https://www.cnil.fr/en/cookies-and-advertisements-inserted-between-emails-google-fined-325-million-euros-cnil
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aLljOYFhmIvctkmhztb3jgAAAI4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aLljOYFhmIvctkmhztb3jgAAAI4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aLljOYFhmIvctkmhztb3jgAAAI4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.cnil.fr/fr/cookies-deposes-sans-consentement-la-cnil-sanctionne-shein-dune-amende-de-150-millions-deuros
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aLljOYFhmIvctkmhztb3jgAAAI4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/07/klm_air_france_latest_major/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/21/x_french_police/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/20/google_play_eu_changes/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/google_ai_model_inquiry_eu/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/trump_tech_tax_threat/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"The EU could be hammering China with fines, and he'd still claim we're doing nothing, if the lie was useful to him."
That's just portraying Trump as untrustworthy - if you would also acknowledge that Trump would approve of the fines if there was a kickback to Trump's family because Trump had invented fining other countries, then you could also capture his corruption and narcissism.
"impose tariffs on nations which dare to regulate US tech companies."
Maybe it's time to just stop using them then.
Find open source alternatives and/or make your own...
It's not like it's going to get any better in the future anyway.
Same comment as I've made before
Cookies should be (selectably) automatically erased by the browser when you leave the page.
I don't fully understand the details of what Google did. Apparently they added a new button to address the problem, but that was not enough to inform the users, who anyway are clicking everything without reading. I suppose the relatively small fine reflects the subtlety of the issue, as fines under a billion are considered as merely the cost of doing business.
They might be "the cost of doing business", but a 200M fine erases 1-2B of turnover. And even Google doesn't have so many billions, that they don't start to add up.
Unfortunately, I suspect that the amount the eventually gets handed over, won't be much like the 200M headline.
> Another reason for Trump’s ire is that he feels regulators don’t target Chinese companies. CNIL has proved him wrong on this occasion.
Not that it really matters. Trump doesn't pay much attention to whether what he says is correct. The EU could be hammering China with fines, and he'd still claim we're doing nothing, if the lie was useful to him.