Privacy regulators in six European countries are preparing to challenge Google’s refusal to reverse privacy policy changes it made in March 2012.
CNIL, the French privacy body, is leading its equivalents from the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Italy in a possible legal challenge which will involve an investigation and possibly fines.
The Guardian reported the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) could impose a fine of up to £500,000 (US$755,000) for breaches of the Data Protection Act, while CNIL could fine Google up to €300,000 (US$385,000).
While both fines together would be less than Google’s revenue made every 10 minutes, the consortium of regulators could move to ban it from operating on the continent.
CNIL said: “The EU Data protection authorities asked Google to comply with their recommendations within four months.
“After this period has expired, Google has not implemented any significant compliance measures.”
The ICO added: “We put our concerns to Google [in October] and gave them a date to respond.
“They failed to respond. We had a meeting in March and Google was present, and gave them a deadline to respond. They failed to respond. Google has failed to address the concerns or take on board the recommendations from the meeting held last month.”
Google claim however it has “engaged fully” with the data protection authorities and believe they do comply with European law.
