French telecommunications giant Orange has been fined 50 million euros for placing advertisements in emails without users’ consent.
The French National Commission for Freedom of Information (CNIL) found that Orange was inserting advertising messages into customers’ mailboxes through the Mail Orange service. These messages looked like regular emails, but were posted to promote products and services, and space was sold to advertisers.
In addition, it was found that Orange continued to use cookies on users’ devices even when they withdrew their consent to store and read cookies; The CNIL ordered the company to stop the infringement within three months. In case of failure to comply with the requirement, Orange faces a fine of EUR 100,000 for each day of delay.
Orange is the largest French telecommunications operator, serving more than 7.8 million customers. European courts have previously ruled that email inboxes, including Gmail, cannot deliver advertising without the user’s consent, which is GDPR-compliant.
The fine highlights the seriousness of user privacy violations and the importance of complying with European data protection legislation.
92 
104 
80 