Facts about the Brussels Court of Appeal judgement of 14 May 2025.
Authors: Frederic Debusseré and Ruben Roex, Partners at the Brussels law firm Timelex (Counsel for the complainants in this case)
EU ruling: tracking-based advertising by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, X, across Europe has no legal basis
Landmark court decision against “TCF” consent pop ups on 80% of the internet
European Court of Justice finds IAB Europe responsible for “TCF” consent spam popups across the Internet
Europe’s top court rules that IAB Europe is responsible under the GDPR for the “TCF” consent spam popups that appear on almost every website.
Brussels Markets Court rejects IAB Europe’s request to immediately suspend enforcement
Brussels Markets Court rejects IAB Europe’s request to immediately suspend enforcement against its GDPR infringements. The Court will rule on the merits after the CJEU rules.
Landmark GDPR decision against “consent” spam to be heard at Europe’s highest court
The Brussels Court of Appeal dismisses various IAB Europe procedural grounds of appeal and agrees to refer our preliminary questions to the European Court of Justice.
Demand to global brand CEOs: stop unlawful consent spam and delete the data
ICCL & EPIC write to CEOs of P&G, Unilever, AT&T, BoA, Chevrolet, Ford, GM, IBM, and Mastercard, demanding they stop consent spam and delete data.
GDPR enforcers rule that IAB Europe’s consent popups are unlawful
EU data protection authorities find that the consent popups that plagued Europeans for years are illegal. All data collected through them must be deleted. This decision impacts Google’s, Amazon’s and Microsoft’s online advertising businesses.
IAB Europe can’t audit what 1000+ companies that use its TCF system do with our personal data
Thanks to Dr Panos Papadopoulos, Dr Krzysztof Franaszek, Zach Edwards, Dr Augustine Fou, Pete Snyder for their insights. Any mistakes are my own. 20 January 2022 This note describes why IAB Europe’s new “vendor compliance programme” is unable to establish transparency …
Tracking-industry body IAB Europe told that it has infringed the GDPR, and its “consent” pop-ups used by Google and other tech firms are unlawful.
Google and the entire tracking industry relies on IAB Europe’s consent system, which has now been found to be illegal. Update: final decision published on 2 February 2022. See note. 5 November 2021. We have won. The online advertising industry and its …
GDPR watchdog’s investigation finds that tracking and consent pop-ups used by Google and other major websites and apps are unlawful.
The Belgian Data Protection Authority (APD-GBA) has found serious GDPR infringements in the system Google and others use to legitimise online tracking. The system behind nearly all of the consent messages that pop up on screens in Europe has been found to infringe the GDPR. The APD-GBA is the lead enforcer on this issue for the EU.
Data Protection Authority investigation finds that the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework infringes the GDPR.
This note summarizes findings of an investigation by the GDPR supervisory authority with responsibility for the IAB in Europe. 16 October 2020 The Belgian Data Protection Authority (APD-GBA) has conducted an investigation of the IAB and its Transparency and Consent Framework …