Google headed to court this week to get a recent decision by France's privacy watchdog overturned, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Google will now contest both the fine and the notice in court. According to the WSJ, Google took the matter to the Conseil d'Etat in Paris on Thursday.
Google's lawyer requested the notice should be suspended while it appeals CNIL's ruling, as the move would cause "irreparable damage" to its reputation, the WSJ reported yesterday.
Last month, regulator CNIL (la commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés) issued Google with the maximum fine possible under French law, €150,000, after raising objections about Google's consolidated privacy policy, according to WSJ.
The new policy, consolidated over 60 separate privacy documents, came into force in March 2012 despite fears by European regulators that it violated the European Directive on Data Protection, the WSJ reported.
CNIL repeatedly requested that Google address its concerns with the policy and bring the policy into line with French data protection law, but according to CNIL, Google failed to do so, the WSJ reported.
"This publicity measure is justified by the extent of Google's data collection, as well as by the necessity to inform the persons concerned who are not in a capacity to exercise their rights," CNIL said, according to the WSJ.
Under the CNIL ruling, Google would have had to keep the notice in place on its homepage for a 48 hour period from 8am, with a message saying it had been fined €150,000 for breaches of the Data Protection Act and a link to the ruling on CNIL's site, the WSJ reported.
"This is something we've never seen before," Patrice Spinosi, representing Google, said during Thursday's hearing, the WSJ reports. "Google has always maintained that page in a virgin state."
