Cookies: the Council of State agrees with publishers in the face of the Cnil

According to the high administrative jurisdiction, publishers can block access to their site to a user who refuses cookies, contrary to what the Cnil, the French gendarme of personal data, indicates in its guidelines on the subject published in 2019 The Cnil cannot " legally prohibit (...) 'cookie walls', a practice which consists in blocking access to a website in the event of refusal of cookies, " the Council of State said in a press release. press, thus confirming information from Figaro . "By deducing such a prohibition from the sole requirement of the user's free consent to the deposit of tracers laid down by the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Cnil has exceeded what it could legally do ", continues the press release.

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The Council of State also stressed that site publishers did not need to ask for specific consent for each use of the data by the internet user, who could give global consent. On the other hand, the consent of " the user must be preceded by specific information " for each of these uses, he insisted.

The Council of State had been seized by the Gesture, the union of the editors of contents and services on line, and other professional associations: the latter oppose the new guidelines adopted by the CNIL in 2019, after the entry into force of the new European data protection regulation (GDPR) a year earlier.

Cookies allow site publishers to accumulate data on Internet users, which may then be sold, in particular for the purpose of targeted advertising. The Council of State did not, however, follow the publishers on their other complaints about these guidelines, notably concerning the recommended duration of storage of cookies.

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The Cnil should soon publish its “ recommendation ” (a practical guide for applying the guidelines). The first sanctions for non-compliance with these instructions will only come after a " adaptation period " of six months, the time that the publishers update their sites.