Cookies banners are not so appetizing anymore

Cookies are the hot topic of the moment. With the CNIL at the forefront, with an increased focus on compliance and initiatives to end cookie banner exhaustion, this topic is drawing the attention of professionals and website users.
Let’s take a closer look at the situation…

For consent to be properly collected and considered valid, the user must be able to make a free choice. Therefore, if a user is prevented from accessing the website or mobile application, or if their access is limited by their consent to cookies the user cannot be considered to have made a free choice – this is a “cookie wall”.

Among national Data Protection Authorities (DPAs), the CNIL has taken center stage on the topic of cookies over the last few months.
You may recall that CNIL adopted guidelines on cookies in 2019, updated in 2020, with a compliance deadline of March 31, 2021. In line with its global compliance strategy, the CNIL launched a formal notice campaign last May, which was sent to twenty organizations requiring them to comply with the latest guidelines and giving them a grace period until September 6, 2021 to do so.

What was the purpose of this public enforcement action? To improve organizations’ practices when making the refusal of cookies as easy as their acceptance for the user.
Of all the actors targeted by the CNIL, 80% have now complied.

There is a risk that other formal notices will be issued to French organizations in the months to come, and we must remain vigilant, under penalty of sanction that can go up to 2% of turnover.

The CNIL has shown that it is more active and more willing to tighten up on compliance with the new guidelines, which is not the case with neighboring DPAs. For example, the German, English and Spanish DPAs have not addressed the issue by providing grace periods for compliance with cookie requirements, unlike the CNIL.