Website operators are not permitted to use cookies and similar tracking technologies for analysis and marketing purposes without the informed consent of users, if this involves sharing personal data with third parties and enables the tracking of users while they surf the web. Cookie banners have to be designed in such a way that, on the first layer, both declining and consenting are presented as equivalent options beside each other. When websites use third-party plug-ins, such as Google Analytics and the Facebook pixel, this usually results in joint controllership under Art. 26 GDPR, which is why information on “the essence of the arrangement” between the joint controllers, as required under Art. 26(2) Sentence 2 GDPR, must be made available to users.
This is what the LG Rostock (Rostock Regional Court) decided in its judgment of 15 September 2020, ref. 3 O 762/19 (not legally binding). The Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv) had filed a complaint against “advocado”, an online service that helps people find a lawyer.