Tech fines in France

France's competition authority fined Google for failing to negotiate in good faith with news publishers over payment for news snippets under the EU's neighbouring-rights rules.

France's competition authority fined Apple over anticompetitive agreements with premium resellers that froze the reseller market and kept prices aligned. On appeal the fine was cut to €372M.

The CNIL's largest cookie penalty against Google covered advertising inserted directly into Gmail inboxes without consent, alongside continued cookie-consent failures.

France's competition authority found that Google favoured its own ad server and ad exchange in online display advertising, and accepted binding commitments alongside the fine.

The CNIL found that Google made refusing cookies far harder than accepting them, a dark-pattern design that did not amount to valid consent.

France's competition authority found that Apple's App Tracking Transparency consent design over-burdened third-party apps while Apple's own advertising faced lighter requirements, an abuse of its dominant position.

The CNIL fined Google for placing advertising cookies on users' devices without prior consent and without adequate information.

The CNIL fined Microsoft for depositing advertising cookies on bing.com without consent and for making it harder to refuse cookies than to accept them.

France's CNIL issued one of the first major GDPR fines, finding that Google lacked transparency and valid consent for ads personalisation during Android device setup.

The CNIL fined Amazon for placing advertising cookies on amazon.fr visitors' devices without consent or adequate information.

The CNIL found that Free Mobile's security was inadequate for the volume and sensitivity of its data, with weak authentication on the VPN used for remote work and ineffective detection of abnormal activity, after an attacker reached its systems in October 2024. It also found that the breach notice sent to subscribers lacked required information, and that Free Mobile kept millions of former subscribers' records for an excessive period.

France's DGCCRF fined Apple for failing to tell consumers that iOS updates could slow older iPhones to manage aging batteries, part of the wider Batterygate episode.

The CNIL found that Free, the broadband operator, did not secure its subscribers' data to a level matching its volume and sensitivity, with weak VPN authentication and ineffective detection of abnormal activity, after an attacker reached the systems of Free and Free Mobile in October 2024. It also found that the breach notice sent to subscribers lacked required information on the consequences and on how to protect themselves.