European member states and Google still want to keep cookie banners
Plans to phase out cookie banners are under pressure. The European Commission had wanted to replace cookie banners with an automated consent signal. However, Google and several EU member states that are actually calling for simpler regulation and a reduction in administrative burdens – including Germany and France – are obstructing this. In the most recent position of the European Council of 18 June, the plan to abolish cookie banners has already been deleted. According to privacy organisation noyb, this means that European users will be stuck for many more years with unnecessary annoyance, wasted time and billions of extra mouse clicks.
In Europe, users may not simply be tracked. Both online and offline, there is a fundamental right to data protection. This also applies to platforms run by Meta and Google, as well as to websites full of tracking advertisements. Companies must therefore obtain consent before they are allowed to use personal data, or else simply leave the user alone.
In practice, this is done via so-called cookie banners. These not only request consent for cookies, but usually also for sharing data with external parties. In theory, users should only give consent if they voluntarily want to be tracked online. In practice, only about 3-10% of Internet users actually want this. But by using tricks – like hidden reject buttons or pre-ticked boxes – the tracking industry still manages to achieve consent rates of up to 90%.
With more than 450 million inhabitants in the EU, this leads to billions of extra clicks per year, according to noyb. This causes frustration and costs consumers a great deal of time, while Big Tech and the tracking industry earn billions from this supposedly voluntary consent.
In the autumn of 2025, the European Commission proposed replacing cookie banners with an automatic signal that would allow devices, users and websites to exchange consent preferences. A similar system already exists in California. Within Europe too, technical proposals that are in line with European privacy legislation have existed for some time.
The proposed Article 88b of the GDPR would moreover go less far than the US approach, because users would still be able to give consent for each individual website. According to the Commission, this would be an example of reducing administrative burdens, while both consumers and honest businesses would benefit.
Noyb said the European Commission’s proposal has come under pressure due to a confidential lobbying document from Google. It is said to claim that online advertising would largely disappear without cookie banners. According to noyb, this depiction of the situation is highly exaggerated.
The European Commission has made it clear that consent can still be given per website and per purpose. For example, users could choose to give consent to quality media, but not to companies such as Google or Meta. According to noyb, Google ignores this distinction.
Schrems also calls it remarkable that it is precisely the European Commission that wants to abolish cookie banners, while Google and various member states are now working to preserve them. He wonders whether some member states are mainly representing their voters or rather the interests of lobbyists.
The European Parliament has not yet announced its position on Article 88b. According to noyb, it is therefore important that the European Parliament speaks out in favour of retaining Article 88b. The organisation expects the European People’s Party (EPP) to play a decisive role in this.
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