SOLOCAL: a lead supplier’s promise did not substitute for proof of consent
CNIL fined SOLOCAL Marketing Services EUR 900,000 for electronic prospecting without valid, demonstrable consent.
The problem
Consent provenance can disappear between the form that collected a lead and the business that later sends marketing.
€900k
- Regulator or court
- CNIL
- Jurisdiction
- France
- Framework
- GDPR Article 7; French CPCE Article L.34-5
- Decision
- Procedural status
- Administrative fine and conditional compliance order; later compliance not established
Notice, consent scope and assent · Unequal choices or identity checks · Undisclosed data exchanges
Case record
- CNIL
- France
- GDPR Article 7; French CPCE Article L.34-5
- 15 May 2025
- EUR 900,000
- Administrative fine and conditional compliance order; later compliance not established
- 19 October 2026
Primary record: CNIL announcement.
What the authority found
CNIL found that supplier collection forms used misleading presentation and did not support free, unambiguous consent. It also found that SOLOCAL could not provide proof of consent for data obtained from a principal supplier. CNIL announcement.
The authority treated SOLOCAL as responsible for demonstrating the lawfulness of its own prospecting activity, despite using intermediaries. Authority notice on EDPB.
Outcome and limits
CNIL imposed EUR 900,000 and ordered electronic prospecting without valid consent to cease. A EUR 10,000 daily penalty was conditional on delay after nine months; it is not added to the recorded fine because this review did not establish that it accrued. CNIL announcement.
Checks for your own systems
These are implementation checks suggested by Inth, not additional findings about the company.
- Retain supplier, form version, notice, purpose, recipients and evidence of the individual’s choice alongside imported leads.
- Stop using a supplier feed when required evidence cannot be produced.
- Check both collection design and proof availability; a contract addresses neither issue by itself.
How Inth helps
Code audit can expose reviewed import and sharing changes. Where a choice is collected through Inth, consent records preserve that choice, country and applicable policy.
Those records do not retrospectively validate purchased leads or certify a supplier’s forms. That requires source evidence and legal review.
Sources and limits
Source review: 19 October 2026. This is a dated account of the cited authority decision. A recorded fine is not a confirmed payment. Later procedural developments are stated only where the linked record establishes them. Inth wrote the implementation checks; they do not establish legal compliance or replace legal advice.