CNIL

What CNIL means

The Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL) is France's independent data protection authority, established under the 1978 French Data Protection Act and now the lead supervisory authority for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the French implementation of the ePrivacy Directive in France. CNIL supervises consent for cookies and similar tracking technologies, processes complaints, conducts inspections, and issues binding decisions including financial penalties up to €20 million or 4% of worldwide turnover under GDPR. CNIL has issued significant fines against large platforms (Google, Meta, Amazon, TikTok) primarily over cookie consent UI design, lawful basis for advertising-related processing, and international data transfers. CNIL publishes its enforcement decisions, sanctions, and formal guidance through cnil.fr. AuditSocials monitors CNIL sanctions, formal notices, and published guidance affecting advertising and tracking on social platforms.