Google LLC – €150,000,000 Fine (France, 2021)

Google LLC is a subsidiary owned wholly by Alphabet Inc. Google Ireland Limited ('GIL') "presents itself" as the headquarters for the Google group's operations in the EEA and Switzerland. In March 2020 the French DPA (CNIL) carried out an online inspection of the website "google.fr" in the context of a previous procedure against Google LLC and GIL. The purpose of this inspection was to verify their compliance with the Loi 'Informatique et Libertés', and in particular with Article 82 thereof. This resulted in this decision, that Google appealed. Following this decision, the CNIL received more complaints about the methods of refusing cookies from the website "google.fr". It therefore reopened the case and launched a new investigation. = First, the companies requested that per Article 66 of the CNIL's rules of procedure, the CNIL stay these proceedings pending the decision to be handed down by the Council of State in the appeal against its first decision against Google and pending the conclusions of the new EDPB working group on cookies. The CNIL rejected this request, as it considered that there were no acceptable grounds for staying the proceedings. = Second, the companies argued that the restricted formation cannot rule again on the same facts as those concerned by deliberations No. SAN-2020-012 and [https://www.cnil.fr/en/termination-injunction-against-google No. SAN-2021-004], without violating the ne bis in idem principle, as it considered the parties and material facts in those case to be identical. The CNIL responded that the two procedures do not concern the same facts, as these cases included an injunction relating to the information of users on the purposes of cookies subject to consent and on the means available to refuse cookies, whereas the one at hand concerned the refusal methods themselves, and not only the information. It also highlighted that this procedure concerned both the websites "google.fr" and "youtube.com", whereas the previous procedur