Amazon Europe Core – €35,000,000 Fine (France, 2020)

Between December 2019 and May 2020, the CNIL conducted three online and one on-site investigations on Amazon Europe Core (AEC), a subsidiary company of the Amazon group operating the shopping site [https://amazon.fr amazon.fr]. These investigations aimed at assessing the company's compliance with the French data protection law. The French DPA reported several infringements of the data protection law by AEC when placing cookies. The company responded by contesting the competence of the CNIL on this matter due to the fact that its main establishment is located in Luxembourg and by challenging the legality of the investigation procedure. Is the French DPA competent to sanction a company whose main establishment is not located in France? Does the investigation procedure of the CNIL infringes with the right to a fair trial as guaranteed by Article 6 of the [https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms]? Did AEC infringe on the French data protection law by placing cookies on the user's computer prior to any action on its part? Did AEC failed to properly inform the user of its use of cookies? The CNIL considered itself competent to investigate AEC and ruled that the company infringed on the French data protection law and on the Directive 2002/58/EC (ePrivacy) while placing cookies. As a consequence, the CNIL imposed a € 35000000 fine on AEC, coupled with an injunction to comply with the Law within three months with a € 100000 penalty per overdue day. Due to the seriousness of the wrongdoings and the high number of Amazon services' users, the CNIL decided to make this sanction publicly available for a two year period. = AEC argued that the French DPA is not competent to investigate on its activity due to the one-stop-shop principle of GDPR. To support this claim, AEC higlights that the CNIL's investigation initial purpose was, among other things, to ensure that the company complie