(RoyalPatriot.com )- The big tech search engine is in trouble with the European Union after sending out unsolicited advertisements to Gmail users’ inboxes. Austrian advocacy group noyb.eu (None of Your Business) filed a complaint with France’s data protection watchdog, alleging that Google has breached an EU court ruling, according to OANN.
The advocacy group maintains that Google should ask users for their prior consent when receiving advertisements to their inboxes, citing a 2021 decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJUE). The emails include “ad” in green text on the left hand side, below the subject of the email, the group said in its complaint, adding that there is also no date included in the email.
The EU law, confirmed by the Court of Justice, clearly states that advertisements or marketing ploy sent directly to users’ emails would have to have their consent.
“The Court of Justice was pretty clear on the matter: if it looks like an email, smells like an email, then it is an email. It seems that Google ignores this and continues sending spam to their own users,” said Eliška Andrš, a legal trainee at noyb.eu.
Neither Google nor CNIL, the French data protection company have made a comment, but CNIL spokesperson said that the complaint was being registered with the agency. Vienna-based noyb.eu was founded by Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Max Schrems.
The CNIL, the most known privacy regulator in Europe, imposed a fine of 150 million euros on Google earlier this year for allegedly “making it difficult for internet users to refuse online trackers,” the outlet reported. They also imposed a fine of 50 million euros for the company’s “unclear privacy notice and lack of legal basis for personalized ads.”
