Now that a month has passed since the deadline for implementation of Europe’s new cookie ‘consent’ law – a deadline missed by almost all EU Member States – it seems that the law is now (slowly) coming
Now that a month has passed since the deadline for implementation of Europe’s new cookie ‘consent’ law – a deadline missed by almost all EU Member States – it seems that the law is now (slowly) coming into effect across Europe. With online operators everywhere anxiously awaiting news about how Member States are implementing these requirements, now seems a good time to provide our followers with an update.
Aside from the UK, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands and Sweden have all now taken the plunge and introduced new cookie ‘consent’ laws. If these early adopters are anything to go by, then national legislators are broadly falling into one of two implementation camps – implementing cookie consent laws either on a strict ‘prior opt-in’ basis or, instead, qualifying the consent requirement by reference to ‘appropriate’ browser (or other application) settings.
So far, there is a roughly 50/50 split between these two camps. Ireland and Sweden have followed the UK’s pragmatic lead by qualifying consent by reference to browser settings, whereas Latvia and The Netherlands appear instead to have taken a strict prior opt-in approach. Most interestingly, the Netherlands has gone even further and clarified that the use of cookies to collect browsing behaviour for targeted advertising purposes will qualify as personal data processing – exposing ad networks not just to compliance with new cookie consent requirements, but with national data protection rules in full.
Coming down the pipeline, Spain and Germany also have legislative proposals under consideration – in each case, qualifying consent by reference to browser settings. However, even in territories that have chosen to allow consent to be expressed through browser settings, the message ringing loud and clear is that the current generation of browsers do not offer suitable settings to obtain consent – principally because they accept cookies by default. In fact, the legislative proposals under consideration in Spain state that users must expressly configure their browser settings in order to consent to cookies.
So there we have it – six more jurisdictions have brought their cookie consent laws online. Interestingly, when publishing his annual report, the UK Information Commissioner took the opportunity to caution businesses to ”take their 'consent' obligations seriously” adding ”I'll be after them if they don't” (see http://goo.gl/SLvTh). You have been warned!
If you would like a copy of FFW’s “Cookie Assessment Tool” to audit your organisation’s use of cookies, please e-mail my colleague, Phil Lee: phil.lee@ffw.com.
Aside from the UK, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands and Sweden have all now taken the plunge and introduced new cookie ‘consent’ laws. If these early adopters are anything to go by, then national legislators are broadly falling into one of two implementation camps – implementing cookie consent laws either on a strict ‘prior opt-in’ basis or, instead, qualifying the consent requirement by reference to ‘appropriate’ browser (or other application) settings.
So far, there is a roughly 50/50 split between these two camps. Ireland and Sweden have followed the UK’s pragmatic lead by qualifying consent by reference to browser settings, whereas Latvia and The Netherlands appear instead to have taken a strict prior opt-in approach. Most interestingly, the Netherlands has gone even further and clarified that the use of cookies to collect browsing behaviour for targeted advertising purposes will qualify as personal data processing – exposing ad networks not just to compliance with new cookie consent requirements, but with national data protection rules in full.
Coming down the pipeline, Spain and Germany also have legislative proposals under consideration – in each case, qualifying consent by reference to browser settings. However, even in territories that have chosen to allow consent to be expressed through browser settings, the message ringing loud and clear is that the current generation of browsers do not offer suitable settings to obtain consent – principally because they accept cookies by default. In fact, the legislative proposals under consideration in Spain state that users must expressly configure their browser settings in order to consent to cookies.
So there we have it – six more jurisdictions have brought their cookie consent laws online. Interestingly, when publishing his annual report, the UK Information Commissioner took the opportunity to caution businesses to ”take their 'consent' obligations seriously” adding ”I'll be after them if they don't” (see http://goo.gl/SLvTh). You have been warned!
If you would like a copy of FFW’s “Cookie Assessment Tool” to audit your organisation’s use of cookies, please e-mail my colleague, Phil Lee: phil.lee@ffw.com.