ECJ ruling on data protection and cookies

Decision of the CJEU: Cookies only with voluntary active consent

The European Court of Justice had decided that website operators may only use cookies with the active and voluntary consent of the users via opt-in. On the other hand, there is no effective consent if fields are already marked with the possibility of an opt-out or if consent is assumed simply because the user continues to surf.

The Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber comments on this:

"The CJEU has again stressed the importance of free and informed consent under data protection law. This message is an important sign especially in times of progressive digitization, in which it is sometimes increasingly difficult to control one's own data. I assume that the legislator will take this into account in the forthcoming amendment of the Telemedia Act. A correspondingly legally clear regulation is more than overdue, especially in connection with the use of so-called cookie banners. According to today's judgement, these can no longer be used as a legally compliant basis for setting cookies.

Source: https://www.bfdi.bund.de/DE/Infothek/Pressemitteilungen/2019/23_Urteil_Cookies.html

The State Data Protection Commissioner of Brandenburg, Dagmar Hartge, with regard to the ECJ ruling:

"The judgement answers the long controversial question of how cookies can be used in a way that is compatible with data protection - and with welcome clarity. Both public authorities as well as companies and associations in Brandenburg that use cookies in their Internet offers are called upon to take action now: They must check the cookie functions of their websites, design understandable options for users and revise their data protection and cookie information."

Source: https://www.bfdi.bund.de/DE/Infothek/Pressemitteilungen/2019/23_Urteil_Cookies.html

In this regard, the speaker at the Federal Commissioner for the Data protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI) Dr. Oliver Griess:

"The data protection authorities at federal and state level took an important step last year and adopted a joint "Telemedia" orientation guide at the data protection conference. This provides all companies with guidelines for the use of cookies. How this is enforced is ultimately decided by the respective responsible supervisory authority. We first provide advice and information. However, if violations are not remedied, we must instruct the site operators if necessary or impose a fine.