German privacy watchdog urges EU to scrap cookie banners
Germany’s federal data protection authority is calling on EU lawmakers to abandon the current cookie-banner model and replace it with a centralised, machine-readable consent system embedded in the Digital Omnibus package. In new recommendations published on 13 August 2026, the Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit (BfDI), Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider, argues that cookie banners have become a symbol of over-regulation while failing to deliver meaningful user control.
BfDI’s core proposal
The BfDI’s position is that users should be able to set their tracking preferences once in a trusted interface, such as a browser setting or a certified consent-management service, and have those preferences automatically communicated to every website they visit. This would effectively remove the need for repetitive, per-site pop-ups while preserving the GDPR’s requirement for informed, specific, and freely given consent.
Specht-Riemenschneider explicitly links this approach to Article 88b of the proposed Digital Omnibus, which originally envisaged binding, automated privacy signals at browser or system level. The BfDI is urging EU negotiators to use the ongoing trilogue process to re-anchor such a mechanism in the final text, arguing that it would reduce ‘cookie fatigue’, improve transparency, and lower compliance costs for businesses.
Why this matters now
The timing is significant. In June 2026, the EU Council removed Article 88b from its compromise text on the Digital Omnibus following intense lobbying, including from Google and several member states. That move effectively blocked the most ambitious part of the Commission’s plan to replace cookie banners with automated consent signals.
The European Parliament has not yet taken a final position, meaning the provision could still be restored in trilogue negotiations. The BfDI’s intervention is therefore a clear signal to MEPs and the Commission that at least one major national regulator sees browser-level consent as the more sustainable path, rather than trying to perfect an increasingly unpopular banner regime.
