Definition
Requires website operators to obtain user consent before storing or accessing information on the user's device through cookies or similar technologies.
Excerpt
Member States shall ensure that the storing of information, or the gaining of access to information already stored, in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user is only allowed on condition that the subscriber or user concerned has given his or her consent, having been provided with clear and comprehensive information, in accordance with Directive 95/46/EC, inter alia, about the purposes of the processing. This shall not prevent any technical storage or access for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network, or as strictly necessary in order for the provider of an information society service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user to provide the service.
Related cases
Google LLC and Google Ireland Limited required users to go through several steps to refuse cookies, and for not providing a “refuse all” button in the first layer of the cookie notice.
The Spanish Data Protection Authority (DPA) has fined an airline for violating cookie regulations on their website. The airline failed to give users a choice, provide sufficient information, and allow users to reject all cookies at once.
VOODOO was fined by the French DPA for not obtaining user consent for personalized advertising and for providing false information about user tracking behavior. Users were presented with a misleading choice of accepting or declining tracking, followed by a second window requiring acceptance of the provider's data protection policy.
The French DPA found Facebook guilty for making it more complex for users to refuse cookies than to accept them, and for not providing users with clear information on refusal of cookies.
The French DPA fined Microsoft for installing non-essential cookies without valid consent and making refusal of cookies harder than accepting them by placing them on a second layer.