Belgian court confirms system behind online ads violates European privacy law
The Belgian Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), the standard on which most online ads are currently based, violates European law. In doing so, the court upheld the Belgian Data Protection Authority’s earlier 2022 decision, which found that the technology behind personalized ads violates several principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aka Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming (AVG) – the European privacy law in effect since 2018.
Briefly, the system works through real-time bidding (RTB), in which advertisers bid in an automated auction to show personalised ads to Internet users. Those bids are based on data that tracks users’ browsing behaviour via cookies. The TCF, developed by industry association IAB Europe, was supposed to provide a uniform way for websites to seek permission for data tracking. But the original 2022 ruling ruled that both the way consent is sought and the data use within the RTB process violate the AVG.
“Today’s ruling shows that the consent system of companies like Google, Amazon, X and Microsoft is misleading hundreds of millions of Europeans,” said Johnny Ryan, director of Enforce at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and one of the main critics of the current advertising model. “The tech industry has abused the AVG by reducing it to annoying pop-ups, rather than using it as protection for citizens.”
IAB Europe, which had appealed the original decision, responded with relief that the court is not holding them co-responsible for the data processing of participating parties. In a statement, the organisation stated: “The Markets Court has rejected the Data Protection Authority’s view that IAB Europe is jointly responsible with other TCF participants for their processing of personal data, for example for advertising purposes.”
The organisation says it has since submitted proposals for a modified version of the TCF that better reflects their limited role.
As a result of the original decision, IAB Europe was fined and required to thoroughly revise its advertising framework.
What the ruling means concretely for advertisers and ad technology remains unclear for now. It is likely that regulators will closely monitor revisions to the TCF. For Internet users, however, this does not mean that the familiar consent windows will disappear immediately – although the beginning of the end for current pop-up practices now seems to be in sight.
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