Germany · de.indymedia · · 2h
Digital Omnibus: New alliance wants to herald the end of cookie banners
Deutsch (original) · Auto-translated to English
With its digital omnibus, the EU Commission wants to sweeten life, above all, for the economy. However, one of their suggestions also includes largely eliminating the damned cookie banners. The advertising industry, on the other hand, is running a storm and is now feeling headwinds.
Not only are cookie banners annoying, they also waste time and money. Users in the EU could save almost 200 million hours every year if they no longer had to deal with irritating cookie requests.https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/redirection/document/121743">calculatesthe EU Commission. This would equate to around 500 million euros in savings per year.
Simplify rules, save money and thus increase the EU's competitiveness: with the one presented last yearhttps://netzpolitik.org/2025/faq-zum-digitalen-omnibus-was-plant-die-eu-...“Digital Omnibus”, as the legislative package is called, the EU Commission is pursuing a deregulation agenda that is primarily intended to make life easier for business.
While critics complain that most of the proposals are like onehttps://netzpolitik.org/2026/digitaler-omnibus-direkt-von-big-techs-wuns...from the pen of Big Techread, one point falls out of line. The commission had suggested the almost omnipresent oneshttps://netzpolitik.org/2025/faq-zum-digitalen-omnibus-was-plant-die-eu-...largely abolished.
Users could then set in their browser whether or not they can be tracked by certain websites or providers. Conversely, providers would have to respect such “privacy signals” and, if necessary, stop monitoring their users.
“Privacy is a fundamental right and people should not have to fight through endless banners to exercise this right,” says Itxaso Dominguez de Olazabal from the Brussels-based digital NGO EDRi (European Digital Rights).
Annoying loopholes
Laws such as the ePrivacy Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) actually already protect people's privacy, because tracking is generally only permitted after informed consent. A hurdle that the advertising industry has been skillfully circumventing for years: “The industry has turned consent banners into a labyrinth of clicks,” says Dominguez de Olazabal.
It's no wonder that the Commission's proposal, which could save users time while significantly improving their privacy protection, is met with resistance. In addition to lobby organizations from the tracking industry, EU countries such ashttps://netzpolitik.org/2026/online-tracking-deutschland-und-google-woll...and Poland in the EU Councilto cut down the idea as completely as possible.
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Your balance sheet at yethttps://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-a-new-plan-for-eu...processremains mixed so far. In the summer, the then Cypriot Council Presidency presented a compromise proposal that would have deleted Article 88b put forward by the Commission without replacing it. This is intended to regulate the “cookie revolution”.
Ultimately, the EU countries did not decide on their position on the omnibus because agreement could not yet be found on some points. Meanwhile, the Irish Council Presidency, which has been in office since July, has announced that it will approve the omnibus packagehttps://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/1193144/prioritaeten-der-eu-ratsp...their prioritiesclose.
Appeal to EU institutions
A number of civil society groups want to seize this moment. As a newly foundedhttps://killthecookiebanner.eu">Kill the Cookie Banner CoalitionIn an open letter they appeal to the Commission, Council and Parliament to finally put the “annoying and misleading cookie banners” to rest. A final agreement on a negotiating position is also still pending in Parliament.
“The proposal on automated signals is the only point in the Commission's 'Digital Omnibus' that actually aims to simplify consumers' lives,” says Cláudio Teixeira from the umbrella organization of European consumer protection organizations BEUC. The association co-signed the letter, including EDRi and the Austrian data protection officers from noyb (none of your business).
It is “extremely worrying,” says Teixeira, that policymakers are considering dropping the Commission’s proposal. The campaign is intended to counter this with a strong signal from civil society: "Simplification must not come at the expense of our rights. Strengthening consumer rights should be a priority for politics," says Teixeira.
Not the first attempt
Similar approaches to the one proposed by the Commission have been floating around for many years. The attempt to use the “Do Not Track” standard to signal to websites that you do not want to be tracked had come relatively far. Although many browsers supported the voluntary standard, it failed to gain acceptance: the AdTech industry simply ignored it.
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This may become impossible in some regions in the future. Automated opt-out signals, for example viahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Privacy_Control">GlobalPrivacy Control(GPC) are already standardized and are legally binding in several US states, the coalition explains in its letter. This includes California, where many US tech companies are based.
At the same time, further and more comprehensive approaches are currently being developed, in particularhttps://www.dataprotectioncontrol.org">AdvancedData Protection Control(ADPC) called framework. In addition to some European universities, noyb is also involved. In principle, this would fit well with the Commission's proposal, which wants to establish a European standard.
“All the prerequisites for Article 88b to be a success are in place,” writes the coalition. Automated signals are nothing new; technical concepts for “privacy signals” were already developed in the 2000s. However, so far the EU has lacked a legal framework and a standard.
Win-win for Europe
This is exactly what the EU can and must deliver now, demands the coalition. Ideally, an even further improved Article 88b should “prescribe the use of signals for granting, revoking and refusing consent as well as for objecting to the processing of personal data,” the NGOs demand.
Last but not least, political capital could be made from this, according to the initiative. If the attempt to establish a practical and binding system for automated signals fails again, the hated cookie banners would still remain.
Conversely, however, a shoe will come out of it: “Europeans would applaud if ‘Brussels’ finally took measures to make their lives easier and protect their privacy decisions,” the letter sticks a carrot in front of the EU’s nose.
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Source: de.indymedia