France’s data protection authority, the CNIL, has imposed a €1.7 million GDPR fine on software company NEXPUBLICA FRANCE for failing to implement adequate cybersecurity measures. The penalty was announced on 22 December 2025 following an investigation into a data breach linked to the company’s PCRM software, widely used in the social services sector. The regulator said the GDPR fine reflects serious shortcomings in how the company protected sensitive personal data, despite being aware of long-standing security weaknesses before the breach occurred.

Data Breach Exposed Third-Party Documents

The case dates back to November 2022, when users of a Nexpublica online portal reported that they could access documents belonging to other individuals. These documents included personal files that should have been strictly restricted, raising immediate concerns about data security and access controls. Customers of NEXPUBLICA notified the CNIL after discovering that users could view third-party information through the portal. Given the nature of the data involved, the incident posed a high risk to individuals’ privacy and rights, prompting a formal investigation by the regulator.

PCRM Software Used in Sensitive Social Services

NEXPUBLICA FRANCE, formerly known as INETUM SOFTWARE FRANCE, specializes in designing IT systems and software. One of its core products, PCRM, is a user relationship management tool used in social action services. It is notably deployed by Departmental Houses for the Disabled (MDPH) in several French departments. Because PCRM processes highly sensitive personal data, including information that can reveal a person’s disability, the CNIL stressed that a high level of security was required. The GDPR fine reflects the sensitivity of the data exposed and the potential harm caused to affected individuals.

CNIL Finds Serious Security Failures

Following its investigation, the CNIL concluded that the technical and organisational measures implemented to secure PCRM were insufficient. The regulator identified a general weakness in Nexpublica’s information system, along with structural vulnerabilities that had been allowed to persist over time. According to the CNIL, many of these vulnerabilities stemmed from a lack of knowledge of basic cybersecurity principles and current best practices. Several security flaws had already been identified in internal and external audit reports prior to the breach. Despite this, the company failed to correct the issues until after the data breaches were reported. This delay played a key role in the decision to impose the GDPR fine.

Violation of Article 32 of the GDPR

The CNIL ruled that Nexpublica violated Article 32 of the GDPR, which requires organisations to implement security measures appropriate to the level of risk. This includes considering the state of the art, implementation costs, and the risks posed to individuals’ rights and freedoms. The restricted committee, the CNIL body responsible for sanctions, found that Nexpublica did not meet these requirements. The situation was considered more serious because the company operates as an IT systems and software specialist and should have been fully aware of its security obligations.

Why the GDPR Fine Was €1.7 Million

In setting the amount of the GDPR fine, the CNIL considered several factors. These included Nexpublica’s financial capacity, the number of people potentially affected, and the sensitive nature of the data processed through PCRM. The regulator also took into account that the security issues were known internally before the breach and were only addressed afterward. While Nexpublica has since implemented corrective measures, the CNIL said this did not outweigh the severity of the earlier failings. As the necessary fixes have now been applied, the CNIL did not issue a separate compliance order. However, the GDPR fine serves as a clear warning to software providers handling sensitive public-sector data: known security weaknesses must be addressed before, not after, a breach occurs.

France's data protection authority discovered that when visitors clicked the button to reject cookies on Vanity Fair (vanityfair[.]fr), the website continued placing tracking technologies on their devices and reading existing cookies without consent, a violation that now costs publisher Les Publications Condé Nast €750,000 in fines six years after privacy advocate NOYB first filed complaints against the media company.

The November 20 sanction by CNIL's restricted committee marks the latest enforcement action in France's aggressive campaign to enforce cookie consent requirements under the ePrivacy Directive.

NOYB, the European privacy advocacy organization led by Max Schrems, filed the original public complaint in December 2019 concerning cookies placed on user devices by the Vanity Fair France website. After multiple investigations and discussions with CNIL, Condé Nast received a formal compliance order in September 2021, with proceedings closed in July 2022 based on assurances of corrective action.

Repeated Violations Despite Compliance Order

CNIL conducted follow-up online investigations in July and November 2023, then again in February 2025, discovering that the publisher had failed to implement compliant cookie practices despite the earlier compliance order. The restricted committee found Les Publications Condé Nast violated obligations under Article 82 of France's Data Protection Act across multiple dimensions.

Investigators discovered cookies requiring consent were placed on visitors' devices as soon as they arrived on vanityfair.fr, even before users interacted with the information banner to express a choice. This automatic placement violated fundamental consent requirements mandating that tracking technologies only be deployed after users provide explicit permission.

The website lacked clarity in information provided to users about cookie purposes. Some cookies appeared categorized as "strictly necessary" and therefore exempt from consent obligations, but useful information about their actual purposes remained unavailable to visitors. This misclassification potentially allowed the publisher to deploy tracking technologies under false pretenses.

Most significantly, consent refusal and withdrawal mechanisms proved completely ineffective. When users clicked the "Refuse All" button in the banner or attempted to withdraw previously granted consent, new cookies subject to consent requirements were nevertheless placed on their devices while existing cookies continued being read.

Escalating French Enforcement Actions

The fine amount takes into account that Condé Nast had already been issued a formal notice in 2021 but failed to correct its practices, along with the number of people affected and various breaches of rules protecting users regarding cookies.

The CNIL fine represents another in a series of NOYB-related enforcement actions, with the French authority previously fining Criteo €40 million in 2023 and Google €325 million earlier in 2025. Spain's AEPD issued a €100,000 fine against Euskaltel in related NOYB litigation.

Also read: Google Slapped with $381 Million Fine in France Over Gmail Ads, Cookie Consent Missteps

According to reports, Condé Nast acknowledged violations in its defense but cited technical errors, blamed the Internet Advertising Bureau's Transparency and Consent Framework for misleading information, and stated the cookies in question fall under the functionality category. The company claimed good faith and cooperative efforts while arguing against public disclosure of the sanction.

The Cookie Consent Conundrum

French enforcement demonstrates the ePrivacy Directive's teeth in protecting user privacy. CNIL maintains material jurisdiction to investigate and sanction cookie operations affecting French users, with the GDPR's one-stop-shop mechanism not applying since cookie enforcement falls under separate ePrivacy rules transposed into French law.

The authority has intensified actions against dark patterns in consent mechanisms, particularly practices making cookie acceptance easier than refusal. Previous CNIL decisions against Google and Facebook established that websites offering immediate "Accept All" buttons must provide equivalent simple mechanisms for refusing cookies, with multiple clicks to refuse constituting non-compliance.

The six-year timeline from initial complaint to final sanction illustrates both the persistence required in privacy enforcement and the extended timeframes companies exploit while maintaining non-compliant practices generating advertising revenue through unauthorized user tracking.