Cookies are often a nuisance for consumers and cookie banners can affect companies' reputation. It doesn't have to be that way. Some companies, consumer protection associations and data protection organizations have joined forces to improve cookie banners better.
The framework for this has been the European Good Practice Initiative for Cookie Banner Consent Management - a multi-stakeholder process involving companies, consumer organizations, digital rights organizations, academics and government agencies. The initiative was funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV).
During 2022, stakeholders worked on guidelines for consumer-friendly cookie banner design. The guidelines were presented and discussed at the final virtual conference of the Good Practice Initiative on Jan. 26, 2023.
Dr. Christiane Rohleder, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, gave an opening statement, and Marcel Ritter (Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG, General Counsel), Ursula Pachl (BEUC, Deputy Director), Rebekka Weiß (bitkom, Head of Trust and Security), Dr. h.c. Marit Hansen (Schleswig-Holstein State Commissioner for Data Protection) and Prof. Dr. Gerald Spindler (Faculty of Law, University of Göttingen) discussed the results and further perspectives of consumer protection and data privacy in the context of digital advertising media. ConPolicy Director Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun facilitated the event.
At the time of publication, the Cookie Design Guidelines are supported by three NGOs (Access Now, BEUC, and Privacy International), two companies (CookieFirst and Telefónica Germany GmbH & Co. OHG), one government institution (German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection - BMUV), and one representative of academia (Prof. Dr. Max von Grafenstein, Einstein Center Digital Future - ECDF). Further supporters are welcome and are invited to indicate their intention to implement the Guidelines to the BMUV by e-mail (vii2@bmuv.bund.de).
The Guidelines can be found here on the BMUV website (Guidelines in English, accompanying text in German), and here on ConPolicy’s website.
A short insightful video is here.
More information about the project can be found here.