Google refuses to pay French privacy fine, forced to post admission of guilt (update)

France and Google are playing a delicate game of
brinkmanship in the courts of Europe, and it still isn't
clear who'll come off worse. France fined the search
company €150,000 ($200,000) last month as a penalty
for failing to tell French citizens exactly what happens
to their personal data. Google could have coughed up
the trivial sum and drowned its sorrows in a bottle of
beaujolais, but instead it has decided to fight -- not
because of the money, but because accepting the fine
would have also involved making a public admission of
guilt (published below the search button in a size 13
font, no less) and the company feels this would have
"irreparably damaged" its reputation.

Google's legal appeal against the fine appears to rest on
creating a rift between France and the European Union,
because it claims its privacy policy meets EU
requirements and shouldn't have to be amended to suit
one European country. (Although, to be fair, many
other European countries have also complained about
it.) So, here's the risk: What is currently a dispute over
fines and typefaces could theoretically -- in the worst
case scenario -- escalate into another international court
case that runs on for years, or it could even become a
question of sovereignty that risks causing France to lose
face. Some of this is doomsday-ish speculation on our
part admittedly, but Google's well-funded legal
department doesn't look ready to quit any time soon.
Update: Well, that didn't last long -- a French court has
already rejected Google's appeal, telling the search
giant that it failed to show that the original order was
illegal, at risk to the public interest or that it would
cause permanent damage to Mountain View's financial
interests. Google can still appeal the fine, but it's been
forced to post a public admission of guilt on the
Google.fr homepage, read on for a translated version.

A special branch of the CNIL has fined
Google 150,000 euros for breaking the laws
of "information technology and liberty." See
the full decision at http://www.cnil.fr/
linstitution/missions/sanctionner/Google/

SOURCE: MarketingLand, WSJ, Gigaom