BERLIN, April 6 (Xinhua) -- A German consumer organization announced on Wednesday it is suing U.S. technology giant Google over its use of cookie banners.
The design of the cookie banners on the German domain google.de violates national regulations, as well as European Union (EU) guidelines, according to the consumer organization North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).
Due to Google's banner design, "refusing to process cookies is considerably more onerous than granting comprehensive consent," the organization said. It has filed its lawsuit with the Berlin Regional Court.
Although cookie banners should provide transparency about personal data, the German consumer watchdog complained that so-called "dark patterns" are encouraging consumers to give the most comprehensive consent possible regarding use of their data.
In Google's case, users only had to click once to accept all cookies. However, in order to reject the settings, consumers were redirected to a second level of the banner, and had to select multiple categories.
In response to a request from the Hamburg information safety officer Thomas Fuchs, Google informed the German authority it would add a "reject all" button to its cookie banners across Europe. The new feature will first be introduced in France, Fuchs said on Wednesday.
In December last year, fines were imposed on Google and Facebook in France due to their cookie policy. Both companies have their headquarters in Germany, and thus fall under the responsibility of Fuchs, who has already announced he will approach Facebook next. ■