Many EU countries failing to comply with EU Cookie Law

TRUSTe's study of over 4,000 consumers and 200 top websites in France, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands found few had taken the EU Cookie Law too seriously. Just a third of the top 50 sites in the Netherlands and 12% of those in the UK had taken "some steps to comply with the Directive with an on-screen pop-up, banner or tab informing users about cookies on the site".

France's top 50 websites were found to drop more cookies than any other of the surveyed countries, yet none had taken any steps to comply with the Cookie Law. Germany, too, was found to be lacking in compliance.

This research shows that there is a significant gap between consumer expectations and the experience provided by most companies. The majority of EU consumers are highly knowledgeable about internet cookies and are aware of the pay-off between online targeting from advertisers and receiving free online services, content and games. However they have high levels of privacy concerns and across all four countries, an average of 83% thought that companies should get their permission before tracking them online," said Danilo Labovic, EU Managing Director for TRUSTe.

"The consequences of getting this wrong for businesses are significant with 36% in France choosing not to visit a company website due to concerns about their privacy online and 34% in Germany not using a smartphone app due to online privacy concerns. Across all four countries an average of 68% expect companies to comply with the recent EU Cookie Directive and an average of 41% plan to only visit websites that do. With the top 50 websites in France and Germany having taken no action to inform visitors on their home page about cookie use and tracking on these sites they appear to be out of step with the concerns of their users," said Labovic.

Tags: consumer attitudes, cookies, EU Cookie Law, Europe, online privacy, online tracking