Years of inactivity in “Pay or OK” cases: noyb sues German DPAs

Forced Consent & Consent Bypass In August 2021, noyb had filed several complaints against news sites using unlawful ‘Pay or OK’ systems with German data protection authorities (DPAs). Despite the fact that only about 3 to 10% of people want tracking for personalised advertising, these systems lead to consent rates of more than 99%. Almost four years after the filing of the complaints, the DPAs of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse still haven’t managed to issue a decision on the merits. Quite the opposite: In order to avoid finally deciding the case, the DPA of North-Rhine Westphalia has even issued a 12-page decision that it cannot decide yet. Today, noyb took both authorities to court for their year-long inactivity. “Pay or OK” Complaints from 2021Background to ‘Pay or OK’. In August 2021, noyb filed two GDPR complaint against the ‘Pay or OK’ banners on the news sites faz.net and t-online.de. At the time, the complainant (and all other users) had to decide whether to allow the webs