noyb WIN: French DPA fines Google €325 million for “Spam Emails” in Gmail

Forced Consent & Consent Bypass More than three years ago, noyb had filed a complaint against Google for sending unsolicited advertising emails directly to the inboxes of Gmail users. Contrary to EU law, the company never asked the people concerned for their consent. That's how the competent data protection authority sees it, too: Today, the CNIL has issued a decision siding with noyb – and fined Google €325 million. Press release by the CNILOriginal complaints from 2022Ads disguised as emails. Google sends Gmail users unsolicited advertising directly to their email inbox. On first glance, these messages look like normal emails, but are in fact ads to which users never consented to. Commercial emails sent directly to users constitute direct marketing and are regulated under the ePrivacy directive. This means that companies are required to obtain consent. This has also been confirmed by the Court of Justice, which said that any advertising in a user’s inbox is subject to the rule of