A complaint against Google for sending unsolicited advertising emails in Gmail has been filed by a European data privacy association, which claims that the company violated a judgment of the European Court of Justice, as Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The complaint, filed by Noyb (None Of Your Business), was sent to the National Commission for Computing and Liberties (CNIL), which believes that Google is sending Gmail users advertisements that pose as e-mails. normal emails. Noyb says this violates a 2021 court ruling because these ads should be considered direct marketing emails and require user consent.
Gmail has a “spam” folder, but these advertising messages were sent directly to the user’s inbox, according to Mr. Noyb. From the association’s point of view, an unsolicited advertising message, regardless of its origin, is spam.
“It’s very simple. Spam is commercial email sent without consent. And it’s illegal. Spam doesn’t become legal just because it’s generated by the email provider,” said Romain Robert, lawyer for Noyb, in a press release.
Advertising remains Google’s main revenue driver. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, fell short of its $70 billion profit forecast last quarter, but it still posted $69.7 billion in revenue. Of this amount, advertising brought in $56.3 billion. This isn’t the first time that Google has found itself in the crosshairs of the CNIL either: the French data privacy watchdog fined Google 150 million euros earlier this year. for making it difficult to refuse cookies.
Cnet.com article adapted by CNET France