{"id":7133,"date":"2025-03-10T11:07:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T10:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/?p=7133"},"modified":"2025-03-11T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T10:27:00","slug":"digital-media-fined-violating-cookie-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/digital-media-fined-violating-cookie-regulations\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital media fined for violating cookie regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD)<\/strong> issued a sanction on February 25 against a news website for failing to comply with cookie regulations. You can read the AEPD's published resolution <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aepd.es\/documento\/ps-00444-2024.pdf\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.aepd.es\/documento\/ps-00444-2024.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">It all started with a complaint<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) issued a sanction against a news website for failing to comply with cookie regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The investigation began after a user filed a complaint, alleging that the website did not meet legal requirements regarding its cookie policy. Specifically, the following issues were identified:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Cookies installed without prior consent:<\/strong> The website was found to be downloading Google Analytics cookies before obtaining user consent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No free option to reject cookies:<\/strong> Users were required to subscribe and pay a monthly fee to browse the site without accepting cookies\u2014an approach known as a \"cookie wall,\" which is against regulations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No way to modify consent:<\/strong> Once a user gave consent for cookie usage, there was no accessible mechanism to revoke or change it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Analysis and sanction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The AEPD determined that these practices violated <strong>Article 22.2<\/strong> of the Spanish Information Society Services Act (LSSI), which mandates obtaining user consent before installing non-essential cookies and ensuring that consent can be revoked at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The infringement was classified as minor, and an initial fine of <strong>\u20ac2,000<\/strong> was imposed. However, since <strong>EDA TV<\/strong> opted for early payment and admitted responsibility, the fine was reduced to \u20ac1,200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This case underscores the importance of strict compliance with cookie regulations for websites. The guidelines are clear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A website must not install cookies (including Google Analytics cookies) <strong>before obtaining user consent<\/strong> via a cookie banner.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The cookie banner must always include an<strong> option to reject cookies<\/strong>, and this option <strong>must be free<\/strong> for users.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Even after a user has given consent, there must be an easily accessible tab or section on the website that <strong>allows them to modify their selection<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Want the easiest way to ensure your cookie banner is compliant? Install <strong>Lawwwing\u2019s cookie banner<\/strong>! It detects all the cookies on your website (often more than you\u2019d expect), categorizes them, and generates a banner that fully complies with privacy laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plus, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lawwwing <\/a>cookie banner is fully <strong>customizable<\/strong>\u2014you can place it in the footer, center of the page, choose the colors, and design the \"Accept\" and \"Reject\" buttons however you like!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This ruling serves as a reminder for online businesses of the need to adapt their websites to current privacy and data protection regulations\u2014you never know when you might be audited!acy and data protection laws is essential\u2014you never know when you might be audited!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"195\" src=\"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Copia-de-BANNERS-G2-2-1024x195.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Copia-de-BANNERS-G2-2-1024x195.png 1024w, https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Copia-de-BANNERS-G2-2-300x57.png 300w, https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Copia-de-BANNERS-G2-2-768x146.png 768w, https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Copia-de-BANNERS-G2-2.png 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The investigation began after a user filed a complaint, claiming that the website did not meet legal requirements regarding its cookie policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":7168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[364,335,213,215,214,344,436,338,339],"tags":[360,370,383,363,403],"class_list":["post-7133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-3","category-aepd-en","category-cookies-en","category-cookies-banner","category-cookies-policy-en","category-cookies-web-en","category-fines","category-sancion-en","category-sin-categorizar-en","tag-2025-2","tag-aepd","tag-banner-cookies-2","tag-cookies","tag-fines"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7133","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7133"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7184,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7133\/revisions\/7184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}