European publishers and member of the digital advertising industry have welcomed new provisions eliminating legal uncertainty for cookies.
The ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC) included in the ‘Telecom Package’ strengthens security and privacy for internet users. Crucially, the new law provides a solid legal basis for cookie management tools in browsers and other applications.
Cookies ensure that the internet functions effectively by storing a user’s settings, such as language preferences or authentication, shopping cart contents, and other data used by websites, to improve and customise their content and advertising to user preferences.
The European Parliament rejected its earlier opt-in amendment for cookies that would have disrupted the internet experience of users, by requiring repeated pop-up windows, or other intrusive virtual labels upon every web page visit by a user.
In its Article 5(3), the ePrivacy Directive outlines strong safeguards to protect users from unwanted software such as adware, junk, or even viruses and spyware, requiring software vendors to seek their consent.
For cookies, the legislation’s preamble specifically says that the control settings in a web browser such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera or Safari are sufficient to comply with the consent requirement in the legislation.
Even for cookies that cannot be controlled by web browsers, the new law recognises that the settings of specific control panels satisfy the consent requirement.
The preamble also gives greater emphasis to the need for clear and comprehensive information to users, in user-friendly ways.
By providing transparent information about cookies, users will be in a position to make informed choices; for example by managing their use of cookies via browser settings. The law now clarifies that websites can rely on browser controls and similar applications to define the acceptance of cookies.
Publishers and online marketers support this approach because greater transparency, user-friendly information and easy cookies-management will increase consumer trust and confidence.
“The EU legislator kept the existing opt-out regime for cookies and improved it to the benefit of Internet users. Importantly, business now has a solid legal basis to rely on the browser settings when deploying cookies,” said IAB Europe Vice President, Kimon Zorbas.
“This recognises the established practice that web users set their cookie preferences in their settings managers.”
Member States must transpose the Directive into national law in the next 18 months. They must do so with great care so as to avoid incorrect implementation under local law.
“National legislators need to make sure that the law is transposed coherently and in a harmonised manner,” added Stephan Noller, CEO of nugg.ad and IAB Europe Chair of the Policy Committee.
“If not we risk different interpretations that would create new barriers to the internal market, confuse consumers and ultimately place Europe at a competitive disadvantage to other global markets.”