“Refusing cookies should be as simple as accepting them!”
That seems to be the song the French Data Protection Authority CNIL is singing these days.
At least, it’s a message that has been delivered to more than 20 businesses in France last week.
And this time the message is formal. The targeted businesses now have 30 days to bring their cookie pop-ups into GDPR compliance.
CNIL begins to enforce cookie rules in 2021
Back in April 2021, the CNIL began checking whether websites followed the French guidelines for cookies and online tracking.
The assessment revealed that a number of businesses and organizations did not allow website users to refuse cookies as easily as it was to accept them.
As a result, the President of the CNIL has given formal notices to twenty organizations who have not brought their websites into compliance with the updated French rules for cookies from October 1st, 2020.
Link: CNIL revises cookie guidelines and recommendations
The organizations who are both international players in the digital economy and several public bodies now have one month to comply or experience financial penalties of up to 2% of their turnover.
CNIL planning further actions
This is CNIL’s first campaign since the 6 months grace period for bringing websites and apps into compliance with French cookie law ended (this April).
CNIL is now planning similar actions in the coming months as it is one of its key priorities in 2021.
And we first saw this back in December 2020, when heavy fines were brought onto international players like Google and Amazon. These two companies alone saw fines of up to €135 million euros for their cookie practices.
So, fair to say, cookies and consent is something the French Data Protection Authority take seriously.
How to comply with French cookie rules?
It is actually very easy to comply with French cookie law.
First, the CNIL encourages all websites to do a cookie audit to see if they follow the cookie Guidelines.
You can do that here:
Free website cookie compliance check
Second, based on their cookie guidelines, we have made a short checklist you can go through.
Checklist for collecting
valid consent to cookies
- Block cookies before you get consent
- Offer an easy way for your user to decline cookies
- Inform your users of cookies
- Respect their privacy choices
- Provide an easy way for change or withdraw consent
- Store their consents for 5 years
Remember, you can always get a professional assessment from us [free].
Cookie compliance is not something that is going to break your budget and it’s certainly not something that will make you lose all your data.
Our Consent Solution has a +75% acceptance rate to cookies even in the strictest part of Europe.
And with Google Consent Mode as default build into our solution, you’ll get aggregated data for the last 25% for Analytics and Ads reporting.
Get a free cookie compliance check today and avoid being the next business the CNIL will send a formal warning.