The French data privacy watchdog CNIL has fined Google 100 million euros and Amazon 35 million euros for breaching national legislation on internet cookies - pieces of data which track users' activity online.
According to an official statement, the tech giants were punished "for having placed advertising cookies on the computers of users ... without obtaining prior consent and without providing adequate information".
In this Nov. 11, 2010 file photo, the Amazon.com logo adorns an Amazon.com fulfillment center in Goodyear, Ariz., one of several centers in the Phoenix metro area to open in recent years. The issue of whether Amazon.com should be required to collect tax on online sales to Arizonans isn't going away. State legislators considered but ultimately shelved proposals to force the online retailer to collect tax on its sales in Arizona. But the issue is expected to resurface publicly within the next few months when a newly appointed state task force considers making recommendations for legislative action in 2013.
© AP Photo / Ross D Franklin
According to the watchdog, the banners, displayed on the sites did not provide clear information for the user on how cookies work and how to refuse them.
This is not the first time the French authorities have targeted digital corporations with major fines. Last year, France demanded that Google pay around $1 billion to settle a fiscal fraud investigation, and later fined the company €150 million for its anti-competitive activities.
