France fines Yahoo 10 mn euros over cookie abuses

Paris: France’s data protection watchdog said Thursday that it had fined Yahoo 10 million euros for not respecting users’ refusals of internet-tracking “cookies” or implying they would lose access to email accounts if they did.

The fine imposed in December, equivalent to $10.9 million, came after the CNIL authority received complaints and carried out investigations in October 2020 and June 2021.

It found that visitors to the main Yahoo.com site who clicked on a button to reject cookies nonetheless ended up with around 20 of the digital trackers deposited for advertising purposes.