EU Authorities Provide Guidance on Obtaining Consent to Cookies

On 2 October 2013, new EU Cookie Guidance was issued for website operators, specifying what they should do to obtain consent from website users for storage of and access to cookies, in order to comply with the EU e-Privacy Directive. The e-Privacy Directive stipulates the need for user consent for placing of cookies. However, since the Directive must be implemented into national law through each of the 28 member states of the EU, inconsistent approaches have been adopted across them to comply with the obligations. The new Cookie Guidance clarifies previous guidance and also may enable companies to avoid regulator intervention for failure to comply with the requirements.