noyb WIN: Belgian DPA “settlement” turned into proper legal orders on deceptive cookie banners

Forced Consent & Consent Bypass Following several noyb complaints from 2023, the Belgian data protection authority has ordered four major Belgian news sites to bring their cookie banners into GDPR compliance. Specifically, De Standaard, Het Nieuwsblad, Het Belang van Limburg and Gazet van Antwerpen must add a “reject” button to the first layer of their cookie banners. In addition, the news sites have been ordered to change the currently misleading colour scheme of the buttons used. If the controller (Mediahuis) fails to comply, it faces a penalty of €50,000 per day per website. Summary of the decision on GDPRhubPress release of the Belgian DPAOriginal noyb complaintsSettlements instead of enforcement. In July 2023, noyb filed complaints against a total of 15 Belgian news websites for using deceptive cookie banners. Although these companies had already been the subject of a DPA investigation in previous years and were found to have failed to comply with the GDPR, they were never ordered