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Is It legal to pay to reject cookies in 2025? What the law says and what practices are prohibited<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may have recently noticed that several Spanish newspapers, as well as various German and Austrian media outlets, have introduced a new approach on their websites. Instead of allowing users to reject cookies outright, they offer the option to subscribe to an anti-tracking service for a monthly fee to prevent tracking through these text files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subscribing to this service would mean that, on websites implementing this practice, users can browse freely without encountering additional cookie banners beyond the one required to obtain their subscription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal of such services is to maintain user privacy while compensating for the revenue lost due to users rejecting analytical and advertising cookies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Lawwwing, we aim to simplify the understanding of current regulations. That\u2019s why we must first ask: Is this option legal?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To answer this question, we must first analyze what the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD)<\/strong> states in its latest Guide on the Use of Cookies<\/strong>, which was updated to align with the European Data Protection Board (EDPB)<\/strong> guidelines published on July 11, 2023<\/strong>. The deadline for implementing these guidelines was set for January 11, 2024<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The guide follows the EDPB\u2019s<\/strong> directives and states that consent is considered freely given only when access to a website\u2019s services and features is not conditional on accepting cookies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a result, websites cannot<\/strong> use cookie walls that do not offer an equivalent alternative to accepting cookies. Additionally, users must<\/strong> be able to access the website without being forced to accept cookies<\/strong>, especially if no alternative means of access is provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in section 3.2.10<\/strong> of its Cookie Guide<\/strong>, the AEPD opened the possibility of complying with the EDPB\u2019s<\/strong> guidelines as long as an alternative access to the website is provided\u2014even if it is not free<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, if all the conditions are met\u2014meaning access to the website is not conditioned<\/strong> on accepting cookies, and the website owner offers an equivalent alternative<\/strong>\u2014then a paid alternative<\/strong> to cookie acceptance would be considered legally valid at the national level<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we\u2019ve seen the legal framework,<\/p>\n\n\n\n As established by the EDPB<\/strong>, users must always have the option to reject cookies, even if this option is not prominently displayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this reason, if a website only<\/strong> provides the options to \"accept,\"<\/strong> \"pay to reject,\"<\/strong> or \"leave the site,\"<\/strong> it would not<\/strong> be complying with European guidelines. In this case, the website owner could be subject to penalties from both the AEPD<\/strong> and the EDPB<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, it's important to note that the AEPD operates at a national level<\/strong>, while the EDPB has yet to issue a definitive stance<\/strong> on this specific matter. So far, the EDPB has only clarified that \"for consent to be freely given, access must not be conditioned.\"<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that national and European solutions on this issue remain unsettled<\/strong>, and we must wait for the EDPB<\/strong> to take a clear position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Lawwwing<\/strong>, we will continue to closely monitor legal developments in this area to provide the most up-to-date solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The implementation of the new Cookie Guide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[364,213,215,214,209,226,227,228,201,211,225,202,229,230,231],"tags":[378,371],"class_list":["post-6329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-3","category-cookies-en","category-cookies-banner","category-cookies-policy-en","category-gdpr-en","category-ibamu-en","category-plugin-en","category-politica-de-privacidad-pagina-web-en","category-privacy-en","category-privacy-policy-en","category-privacy-policy-example","category-rgpd-en","category-terminos-de-compra-en","category-terminos-de-uso-en","category-texto-legal-web-en","tag-laws","tag-privacy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6329"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6687,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329\/revisions\/6687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What does the spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) say?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What practice would be clearly prohibited?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n