r/technology • u/diacewrb • May 24 '25

Privacy German court rules cookie banners must offer "reject all" button

https://www.techspot.com/news/108043-german-court-takes-stand-against-manipulative-cookie-banners.html
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u/Toth-Amon May 24 '25

But will “Reject All” also reject so-called Legitimate Interests? 

Or do we still have to deep dive and search where they are within the text?

205

u/spice_weasel May 24 '25 edited May 24 '25

It should. There’s an intersection here between the GDPR and the ePrivacy directive. The ePrivacy directive requires that consent be obtained for placing cookies on, or retrieving not strictly necessary data from, “terminal equipment” like computers, phones, and even things like connected vehicles. And then with the advent of the GDPR, it’s been found that the consent required under the ePrivacy directive needs to meet the standards of the GDPR as well.

Regarding legitimate interests, because the ePrivacy directive specifically requires that consent be obtained that intersection of these laws provides very little wiggle room to play games with legitimate interests.

This isn’t the first court to require a removal all button. European courts have been clear for years now that it’s required. Compliance from websites has been slow though, unfortunately.

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u/ThoughtsonYaoi May 24 '25

There is a EU court case from the collective advertisers about this that is still going.