France hits Google, Facebook with 210 million euros in fines over cookies
US tech giants, including the likes of Apple and Amazon, have come under growing pressure over their businesses practices across Europe, where they have faced massive fines and plans to impose far-reaching EU rules on how they operate.
The 150-million-euro fine imposed on Google was a record by France's National Commission for Information Technology and Freedom (CNIL), beating a previous cookie-related fine of 100 million euros against the company in December 2020.
Facebook was handed a 60-million-euro fine.
Cookies are little packets of data that are set up on a user's computer when they visit a website, allowing web browsers to save information about their session. They are highly valuable for Google and Facebook as ways to personalize advertising, their primary source of revenue.