GOOGLE LLC and GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED

CNIL (France) case SAN-2020-012, decided 2020-12-07. EUR 100,000,000.

What the regulator decided

Advertising cookies were automatically deposited on the user's terminal on google.fr without prior consent, and the information notice did not explain the purposes of all cookies or the means available to refuse them - a breach of Article 82 of the French Data Protection Act (the French transposition of Article 5(3) ePrivacy).

Primary source

Regulator-owned URL. Quote this in legal briefs and academic citations.

https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/cnil/id/CNILTEXT000042635706

Archived snapshot

Wayback Machine snapshot of the primary source. Use this when the regulator URL might be refactored or expire.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240530121148/https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/cnil/id/CNILTEXT000042635706

ConsentMark interpretation

Operator-readable note on how this case shapes the ConsentMark scanner narrative. Not a legal opinion; cites the primary source.

The fine is split between the two respondents (EUR 60M against Google LLC and EUR 40M against Google Ireland Limited); fine_eur records the aggregate. CNIL is the lead authority on cookie enforcement under ePrivacy; quote this case whenever a scan finds advertising tags firing before consent on a French-language surface.

Verification trail

Verified by: donal
Verified at: 2026-05-26
Review due: 2026-11-26

Cite this case

Pick the format that matches where you are pasting. The methodology version is preserved in every variant so the citation stays verifiable after future methodology changes.

BibTeX

@misc{consentmark-precedent-cnil-san-2020-012,
  author       = {{ConsentMark}},
  year         = {2020},
  title        = {CNIL (France) SAN-2020-012 - GOOGLE LLC and GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.consentmark.com/precedent/cnil-san-2020-012}},
  note         = {ConsentMark methodology v1.3}
}

APA

ConsentMark. (2020, December 7). CNIL (France) SAN-2020-012 - GOOGLE LLC and GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED. Methodology v1.3. https://www.consentmark.com/precedent/cnil-san-2020-012

Markdown

[CNIL (France) SAN-2020-012 - GOOGLE LLC and GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED - ConsentMark](https://www.consentmark.com/precedent/cnil-san-2020-012)

Plain text

CNIL (France) SAN-2020-012 - GOOGLE LLC and GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED - ConsentMark, 2020-12-07, methodology v1.3, https://www.consentmark.com/precedent/cnil-san-2020-012