Digital rights groups are mobilising in support of a Commission digital simplification proposal to reduce online cookie consent banners but which EU countries want to postpone.
Nineteen groups behind the “kill the cookie banner” campaign wrote an open letter to EU institutions on Thursday, calling for lawmakers to adopt the Commission proposal to streamline consent requests for cookies.
The rights groups see the proposed measure as the only genuine simplification step in the Commission’s Digital Omnibus package, which also floats changes to the definition of personal data and cyber reporting rules, among other tweaks.
The Commission’s November 2025 omnibus proposal took aim at much-hated cookie manners by proposing to centralise how users set their privacy preferences.
Instead of having to respond to a cookie pop-up on every website the proposal suggested that users could signal their privacy choices via the web browser which would then send them to websites they visit.
But the plan to reduce the number of cookie banners that web users see has faced pushback from the AdTech industry and media publishers worried that it could reduce consent rates and limit how much personal data they can obtain to use for targeted advertising.
In June, EU countries dropped the cookie provision from their Digital Omnibus mandate, saying they wanted to see a fuller impact assessment before deciding on the fate of banners.
While Parliament remains at an earlier stage of its negotiations on the file, MEPs are waiting for results of a study on cookie banners which will further inform their final position. For now, though, parliamentarians look split on the proposal.
Defending the plan, the digital rights groups point out that privacy signals are not a new technology, with several standards existing since the 2000s.
They also dismiss capitals’ argument that not enough is known about the impact of such rules, as well as criticising what they see as a lack of technical knowledge on the matter among EU legislators.
They cite California’s Global Privacy Control – a standardised opt-out signal – as an example of an existing privacy mechanism that’s respected by websites.
“There is no valid justification to drop the Commission’s proposal… and to uphold the current cookie banner disaster,” said Ursula Pachl of privacy rights group Noyb in a statement.
(nl)