The EU’s plan to tackle “cookie fatigue”
The EU wants to reduce “cookie fatigue” through browser-level consent rules that promise fewer banners and more transparency. Critics warn the proposal could create new gatekeepers, weaken personalised advertising, and increase costs for European businesses.
Many Europeans have long stopped taking notice of cookies that pop up on their browsers and press “accept” (roughly 54% of Europeans) or “deny” (26%) - without much afterthought.
Naturally, even fewer take the time to check their privacy settings regularly to see who has access to their search history. The problem was dubbed “cookie fatigue,” and the European Commission has outlined plans in the Digital Omnibus for a new system that could address it.
However, critics state that the new system may create new gatekeepers, won’t address the issue of consumer online literacy, and will result in European businesses having to spend more on online advertising.
What’s proposed in the Digital Omnibus
With the Digital Omnibus package, particularly Articles 88b, the EC sets out plans for amendments to create a centralized framework where a user gives or refuses consent to processing via a single-click, machine-readable button, and the data controller has a right to re-ask the same question only after 6 months.
The EC summarizes the awaited positive effects in the Digital Omnibus through four dimensions: less cookie banners, more transparency, more clarity on when consent can be re-asked and a centralized approach to consent which makes it less burdensome for both consumers, public sector and European companies.
The EC’s own analysis of socio-economic benefits of centralized browser-level consent estimates savings of €820 million for businesses, €320 million for the public sector due to not having to spend resources on their own cookie-consent mechanisms anymore.
The estimates for productivity savings - roughly €4,98 billion per year - seem to be slightly inflated, as they calculate the number of a basic user’s visits against the number of seconds a person spends clicking cookie consent banners, arguing that the new proposal can help increase productivity by €4,98 billion per year.
The European productivity issues were extensively covered by Mario Draghi in his competitiveness report. For individual Europeans, he argues that EU Member States have to move quickly from soft coordination of skills development to more targeted, KPI-based programs.
If the browser-level consent is actually adopted, it will be relatively easy to look for a spike - or lack of it - in European labor productivity reports in a couple of years.
Criticism to centralized consent approach
From a consumer perspective, one cannot argue with the ambition to make cookie banners more transparent and less complex. Time constraints for the possibility to re-ask the user about cookies does also seem logical, but should consider potential negative effects on, first and foremost, European companies that advertise online (if the time period is too long).
The proposal on centralized consent management, however, is something that requires broader discussion, where policymakers would consult not only technical experts, but also institutions that oversee competition to better evaluate potential negative consequences more closely.
The European Tech Alliance has drawn attention to the fact that mandatory browser-level consent could also centralize consent management in the hands of a few intermediaries, effectively creating new gatekeepers and weakening the direct relationship between users and service providers.
The proposal is also important for small and medium enterprises and digital marketing specialists. If the current consent mechanism system is changed to a browser-level consent system, the SMEs and marketing specialists will have to move from personalized ads to contextual ads, which, according to the study of Implement Consulting group, are always less effective and more expensive.
A constructive, alternative, approach that could both meet the EC’s ambition to reduce “cookie fatigue”, respect the European data protection framework, protect consumers, reduce administrative burden for both businesses and the public sector, and simultaneously avoid creating a new layer of complexity with potential negative socio-economic effects could be introducing clear guidelines on what operational processing activities that do not require consent, based the legitimate interest basis entrenched in the General Data Protection Regulation itself.