French Supervisory Authority To Enforce Its Ad Tracker (“Cookie”) Guideline

Written by: Richard Sheinis, Esq.

As of April 1, 2021, the French Supervisory Authority, Commision Nationale de l’Informatique et des libertes (“CNIL”) will enforce its cookie and ad tracker guidelines.  CNIL had previously announced it would give companies until March 31, 2021 to adjust their ad tracker and cookie practices to come into compliance.

Most of us are familiar with the cookie banners that appear when you first browse a website.  These cookie banners frequently give us the opportunity to either accept all cookies, or review each type of cookie individually and select whether we will accept or reject each type of cookie.  CNIL Guidelines have made cookie practices a little more strict.

Presently, cookie banners subject to GDPR have buttons that allow individuals to accept all cookies, or review cookie settings to make a decision whether they will accept or reject cookies by category of cookie.  This practice will not longer comply with the CNIL guidelines.  The individual must have the ability to reject all cookies, as easily as they can accept all cookies.  This will require adding another button to the cookie banner allowing the individual to reject all cookies (other than strictly necessary cookies) as easily as they can accept all cookies.  The accept all button is still valid as individuals are allowed to accept all cookies with one click, if they choose to do so.

Another important requirement of the CNIL Guidelines is that the initial cookie banner must give short information on the usage of the cookies.  This first description may be limited to a brief presentation of the objectives pursued by cookies.  If the individual then clicks a button to review cookie settings, the individual can be taken to another page, which will give a more detailed description of the cookies.