Link: France fines Google ($169m) and Facebook ($67m) for making it too hard to reject cookies
If a GDPR case affects people in more than one EU nation, the regulator overseeing it must submit a draft decision to their counterparts in other countries. If other regulators raise objections to the penalty, they can trigger a dispute-resolution process, giving them more time to deliberate.
The Irish data-protection commissioner oversees Alphabet, Meta and other tech giants because those companies’ European headquarters are in Ireland. The Irish watchdog has faced criticism from activists and other European privacy regulators for the length of its investigations.
By choosing to fine Google and Facebook under the ePrivacy law, the French regulator avoided the frustrations of the GDPR’s power-sharing system
Just imagine if these fines were issued under GDPR for the maximum 4% of turnover: we might see a bit more compliance on the cookie front.
Perhaps France should be responsible for overseeing Meta, Google and other giants under GDPR as well…or perhaps it shouldn’t be the sole responsibility of a commissioner in a single country.