French internet firm fined 50 mn euros for fake emails

France’s largest internet operator Orange was on Tuesday slapped with a 50-million-euro ($53-million) fine for sending unsolicited ads disguised as emails to customers of its email service.

Orange is the successor to France’s monopoly telephone operator and remains the leading telecommunications firm with a popular email service.

“Internet access and email service provider Orange used its email service to introduce advertisements between emails” that resembled emails, said Louis Dutheillet de Lamothe, deputy head of France’s privacy watchdog CNIL.

Advertisers in France are required to obtain permission before sending material to a person’s email address and CNIL considered Orange’s actions were equivalent to that even if the email addresses of users were not utilised.

The amount of the fine was unusual except for fines imposed on tech giants, but CNIL said noted that more than 7.8 million users received the unsolicited ads.

CNIL “took into account the fact it was a breach that generated money” for Orange, Dutheillet de Lamothe told AFP.

He said the fine should also serve as a warning for other operators.

CNIL also said the fine took into account that in November 2023 Orange change its email interface make ads clear to users.

It also found that Orange users who asked to stop receiving cookies — code that allows advertisers to track users activities on the Internet — continued to receive them anyway.

Orange was given three months to correct that problem or face additional fines.