Privacy complaint filed in France targets Google over unsolicited ad emails

Google has breached a European Union court ruling by sending spam emails directly to the inbox of Gmail users, says an Austrian advocacy group in a complaint filed on Wednesday with France's data protection watchdog.

The US tech giant Google has been fined half a billion euros for failing to negotiate in time with publishers over the use of their content in its news aggregators. © Ng Han Guan/AP

Alphabet, Google's parent company, whose revenue comes largely from online advertising, should ask Gmail users for their prior consent before sending them any direct marketing emails, the advocacy group noyb.eu (None Of Your Business) said, citing a 2021 decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Google's advertising emails look like normal ones, noyb.eu said in its complaint, though they include the word "Ad" in green letters below the subject line, and they do not include a date.

"It's as if the postman was paid to remove the ads from your mailbox and put his own instead," said Romain Robert, programme director at noyb.eu, referring to Gmail's spam filters that put most unsolicited emails in a separate folder.

🚨 Complaint against Google filed with French DPA: Despite a clear CJEU judgment, Gmail creates “Spam Emails” and sends unsolicited advertising without valid consent of the users.
➡Read more: https://t.co/d2N9SouAiv

— noyb (@NOYBeu) August 24, 2022

Google did not immediately respond to the complaint. A spokesperson for the French data protection authority CNIL confirmed they had received the complaint and that it was being registered.

Vienna-based noyb.eu chose CNIL among other national data privacy watchdogs because it is known for being one of the most vocal regulators within the EU, Robert said.

While any CNIL decision would be applicable only in France, it could compel Google to review its practices in the region.

Noyb.eu is an advocacy group founded by Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Max Schrems who won a high profile privacy case at Europe's top court in 2020.

The CNIL imposed a record fine of 150 million euros on Google earlier this year for making it difficult for internet users to refuse online trackers. 

(with Reuters)