TikTok Fined in France for Barriers to Rejecting Cookies on Website

France hit TikTok with a EUR 5 million fine for reasons that might seem superfluous, but are actually essential to user privacy and in line with EU and French regulations.

Tracking users through cookies is one of the problems people face every day. Some countries have very specific rules on user interaction with cookies, including France. The fine TikTok now has to pay is a reminder of the rules in effect. The agency that issued the fine is called the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés, or CNIL for short.

"CNIL sanctioned the social network TIKTOK for a total amount of 5 million euros for two reasons: users of ‘tiktok.com’ could not refuse cookies as easily as accept them and they could not were not sufficiently informed of the purposes of the different cookies," said CNIL on its website.

Few websites follow these rules, but in the European Union, people need the option to say no to cookies and still use the website despite the refusal. It's not that people couldn't refuse to accept the cookies on TikTok, but the option was hidden behind several clicks.

"CNIL noted that while the companies TIKTOK UNITED KINGDOM and TIKTOK IRELAND did offer a button allowing cookies to be accepted immediately, they did not put in place an equivalent solution (button or other) to allow the Internet user to refuse their deposit just as easily," the agency also noted. "Several clicks were necessary to refuse all cookies, against only one to accept them."

Making matters worse, people were not given enough information regarding the use of the cookies. Basically, TikTok didn’t offer enough information on why it needs you to accept the cookies.

The agency controlled only the TikTok website without logging in, and the mobile application wasn't inspected.