Dutch Cookie Law Fine is Largest So Far

The Dutch public broadcaster NPO has been handed a fine of 25,000 Euros this week for failing to put in place an adequate consent mechanism for the use of cookies. This was significantly larger than a previous fine handed out earlier in the year in Spain to a couple of online jewellery retailers.

The NPO was previously warned on several occasions about its failure to meet the requirements of the Dutch cookie law, by the telecommunications supervisory body, the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).

Although NPO promised to comply, and its subsequent mechanism has been ruled to be compliant, it nevertheless failed to meet the deadline set for making the changes, and therefore was given the fine.  However it did at least avoid a heavier penalty, which could have been up to 125,000 Euro according to law firm DLA Piper.

With recent news of data protection fines for Google, and an investigation into Facebook’s privacy policy (in Dutch), is the Netherlands ending 2014 with a warning to companies to expect more enforcement in 2015?