For fifteen years, European Internet users mechanically click on consent windows to accept or refuse cookies. These banners have become the symbol of a complex and not very readable regulation, inherited from the revision of the 2009 E-Privacy Directive and of which the European Commission now wants to turn the page.
Brussels is preparing a so -called “omnibus” text which will be presented in December, in order to simplify the lives of users and reduce the bonds weighing on companies. Among the tracks envisaged is the possibility of configuring your choices directly in the browser, only once, rather than being confronted with pop-ups with each site visit. Some states, such as Denmark, propose to remove banners for cookies deemed “technically necessary” or intended for simple statistics.
On the industry side, the idea is to go further. Adtech and advertising players wish to align the regulation of cookies on the framework of the GDPR, more flexible and based on a risk management approach. The IAB Europe defends the idea of a relaxation allowing companies to invoke other legal bases than systematic consent, such as legitimate interest.
On the contrary, the defense associations, on the contrary, fear a shift to an implicit legalization of advertising tracking.
The battle is therefore far from being closed and any reform of the rules of consent will be scrutinized closely by the lobby of privacy, already mobilized against what it considers as a disguised deregulation, especially since the debate could intensify next year, when the commission will present the Digital Fairness Acta wider text focused on advertising and consumer protection against abusive manipulation and personalization practices.
