[JURIST] Google announced on Wednesday that it filed an appeal of a USD $205,000 fine imposed by the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty (CNIL) [official website] for violating French data protection laws. The CNIL imposed the fine on Google [JURIST report] last week after the company failed to act on the Commission’s order to bring its methods of tracking and storing user information into compliance with French data privacy law. In addition to the fine, CNIL ordered [Reuters report] Google to post the decision on its French homepage for 48 hours within eight days of being officially notified of the ruling. A ruling by the French Council of State, the supreme court for administrative matters, is expected [PC World report] next week.

Google has faced international criticism for alleged privacy violations. In November, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) [official website] stated that Google was in violation [JURIST report] of the country’s data protection act. Earlier that month, the Regional Court of Berlin held that 25 of Google’s privacy policies and terms of service violated [JURIST report] Germany’s data protection law. In September, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] denied [JURIST report] Google’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit regarding the company’s alleged violation of federal law.