The EU Court of Justice has begun to address the issue of cookies at the request of the German Federal Court of Justice, which is dealing with the case of an advertising lottery on the Planet49 GmbH website. To participate in this lottery, Internet users were required to provide their postal code, which redirected them to a website where they were required to enter their name and address, and had a pre-checked box for accepting cookies. However, according to a subsequent ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU, consent by way of a pre-checked box is not sufficient, and the box must be checked by the user’s own action.
This ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU is legally binding on all EU Member States, and the use of cookies must continue to take into account all the requirements set by GDPR.
