Shein abuses cookies and is fined €150 million

Asian discount clothing giant Shein has been fined a massive €150 million in France for failing to comply with cookie legislation, the French data protection authority (CNIL) announced on Wednesday.

These computer trackers had been placed on the terminals of Internet users who visited the Shein site without their consent, or without respecting their choices and not properly informing them, denounces the CNIL, also sanctioning Google with a record fine of 325 million euros for similar grievances. These are the two largest sanctions ever imposed by the CNIL, with the exception of a 150 million euro fine targeting Google in 2022, also concerning cookies.

The French data protection watchdog justified the exceptional nature of the fine imposed on Shein by the precedence of the legislation on which this decision is based, in particular the Data Protection Act, which the company could not ignore. "Since 2020," the CNIL's restricted committee "has repeatedly sanctioned organizations for similar breaches, making its decisions public," the institution stressed in a press release.

This is a colossal penalty given the very high number of potentially harmed users – an average of 12 million French people each month – argued the French National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL). Shein complied “during the procedure,” the CNIL pointed out, however.

For its part, the company "strongly contests" this decision and will appeal to the Council of State and the Court of Justice of the European Union, it told AFP. "We consider the fine to be completely disproportionate, given the nature of the alleged grievances, our current compliance, and the proactive corrective measures we have put in place," Shein said.

"The severity of the penalty appears to be motivated by political considerations rather than by fair and balanced application of the regulations," the company said.