France's privacy watchdog has fined Microsoft €60 million for imposing advertising cookies on users.

As reported by France 24, the fine relates specifically to Microsoft's search engine Bing, which the French National Commission for Technology and Liberty (CNIL) said was not set up to allow users to reject cookies as easily as accept them It stated that

the French regulator of personal data stated that when users visited Bing, "cookies were deposited on their terminals without their consent, and these cookies were used for advertising purposes, among others."

The CNIL further stated that "accepting cookies was not set up in such a way that users could reject cookies as easily as accepting cookies. There was no button to refuse the deposit of cookies as easily as to accept them," he added.

The fine relates to European Union data protection laws that require websites to obtain consent from visitors before storing or retrieving information on their digital devices. Since cookies are used to track online browsing, websites that use cookies (essentially all websites) are included in the scope of this law.

Recently, the CNIL has been cracking down on major high-tech companies that violate these laws. Last year, the CNIL fined the equivalent of 210 million euros for the same problem of not only accepting cookies but also not allowing users to reject them. In response to the fine, Google announced that it would correct its practices, stating that it was "committed to implementing new changes and actively cooperating with the CNIL in response to its decision"

.

Microsoft has not commented on the fine at this time. However, it has been given three months to resolve the issue. If it fails to do so, it could be fined 60,000 euros for each day the problem remains after the deadline.