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French watchdog fines Google, Amazon

Mathieu RosemainAAP
Google has been fined a record 100m euros by French regulators for breaking online regulations.
Camera IconGoogle has been fined a record 100m euros by French regulators for breaking online regulations.

France's data privacy watchdog (CNIL) has handed out its biggest ever fine of 100 million euros ($A162 million) to Google for breaching the country's rules on online advertising trackers (cookies).

The CNIL said in a statement on Thursday it had also fined US e-commerce giant Amazon 35 million euros ($A57 million) for breaching the same rules.

The regulator found the French websites of Google and Amazon did not seek the prior consent of visitors before advertising cookies were saved on computers, it said in a statement.

Google and Amazon also failed to provide clear information to internet users about how the two firms intended to make use of such online trackers, and how visitors of their French websites could refuse any use of the cookies, the watchdog said.

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The CNIL said Amazon and Google had three months to change the information banners.

If they fail to do so, they will face an additional fine of 100,000 euros ($A161,788) per day until the modifications are made.

The financial penalty against Google is the biggest ever issued by the CNIL, a spokesman for the watchdog said.

The previous record fine of 50 million euros ($A81 million) also targeted the US tech giant for breaching European Union data privacy rules.

Amazon and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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