PARIS—France’s privacy watchdog issued more than $163 million in fines to Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon.com Inc. for improperly collecting information about website visitors, taking a hard line as European regulators haggle over such sanctions.
The French regulator, the CNIL, said Thursday that it fined Google GOOGL, -1.85% €100 million, equivalent to $120.8 million—a record for a privacy fine in France—for storing advertising-related identifiers on millions of users’ computers before asking for individuals’ consent, and without explaining sufficiently how the identifiers, called cookies, were used. It fined Amazon AMZN, -2.30% €35 million for the same violations.
Since the CNIL informed Google and Amazon of its investigations earlier this year, each company has updated its website in Europe to stop placing advertising cookies before asking for consent, the CNIL said Thursday. But the regulator added that the companies still don’t properly explain how the cookies are used, and ordered both companies to better inform users within three month—or face further fines of €100,000 a day.
Google stands by its privacy efforts in Europe, a company spokesman said, and is considering whether to appeal the CNIL decision. The decision “overlooks these efforts and doesn’t account for the fact that French rules and regulatory guidance are uncertain and constantly evolving,” he said.
An expanded version of this story can be found on WSJ.com.
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