The "Accept all" button is often the standard for cookie banners. An administrative court has ruled that the opposite offer is also necessary.

The “Accept all” button is often the standard for cookie banners. An administrative court has ruled that the opposite offer is also necessary.

Lower Saxony’s data protection officer Denis Lehmkemper can report a legal victory in his long-standing battle against manipulatively designed cookie banners. The Hanover Administrative Court has confirmed his legal opinion in a judgment of March 19 that has only just been made public: Accordingly, website operators must offer a clearly visible “reject all” button on the first level of the corresponding banner for cookie consent requests if there is also the frequently found “accept all” option. Accordingly, cookie banners must not be specifically designed to encourage users to click on consent and must not prevent them from rejecting the controversial browser files.

  • Hubi@feddit.orgEnglish
    6·
    2 days ago

    Heise is not breaking EU law with this. The law states that there must be an option to reject all cookies, whether it’s a paid option or not is up to the site.

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      This is no longer true thanks to a ruling by the European Data Protection Board. Hang on, I was misreading. I believe there’s been a recent ruling, but this one ain’t it.

      EDIT: See pages 39 and 40. Here, it seems as though no “equivalent alternative” is provided under these criteria. It seems to me like consent-or-pay is heading toward an eventual ban, but Heise makes it clear on their website you can consent, pay, or leave – i.e. not an “equivalent alternative” to my mind.

      EDIT 2: Okay, upon reading these criteria further, it seems like this isn’t a violation of EU law but that it’s reaaaally close and that the EDPB really hates consent-or-pay as a loophole and wants it to die as soon as possible. If not breaking the law, it’s still an ethical nightmare, so the first line of my comment stands: “Heise Group, you greedy cocks.”

      • Hubi@feddit.orgEnglish
        6·
        2 days ago

        so the first line of my comment stands: “Heise Group, you greedy cocks.”

        Fair enough :D