Cookie banners no longer necessary per new GDPR updates

Lots of people have been asking for a Cookie component in Elements because of the EU’s GDPR that mandates them.

It looks like the EU is walking back the scope of the GDPR however in regards to those Cookie banners/popups.

With those new changes, would a Cookie component be necessary anymore? Can we finally scrap them on our websites? I’ll admit I was never a fan of them, they are annoying AF and the ones where you have to go and disable every single “Legitimate Interest” one by one are diabolical. :face_with_symbols_on_mouth:

Anybody else here more versed in EU regulations that can shed some light on it?

Hej @differentdan ,

Well at this stage its only an proposal of the commision, here in Belgium they will still use the cookie-banner / popup because we need to give the visitor the choice for accepting cookies or not bla bla. Still, Europe isnt fast at taking decissions soo… :stuck_out_tongue:

I really would love a cookie component. :stuck_out_tongue:

Greetings,

Mike

This will take a few years to become law, so in the meantime we still need these, unfortunately :frowning:

@differentdan In general: Any cookie banner you might add will never be compliant with the different interpretations in the EU countries. For example, in Germany you would need to add the cause of the cookie and some information on the first stage of the cookie banner. Even before you click to receive more information.

So that would be a black hole for RW and its limited resources.

→ I advice to tell us elements users to use one the existing cookie banner and cookie banner services to save you unneeded development effort and for us customers to be on the legally safe side.

@dan FYI

Yes, this is really good to know!

Yesterday I created a cookie banner for use in Elements with ChatGPT. It includes a statement with a button to make it disappear, and it appears at the bottom of the page. The cookie banner refreshes after 7 days to satisfy Safari’s refresh rate. All you need is to insert the code into the HTML snippet and another small piece of code before the section. So far, it seems to be working in a draft/test site I am starting to put together.

This is actually an interesting point. If the EU does amend the Cookie part of the GDPR to shift the burden from website owners to web browser companies , does that mean it’s valid for all EU member states? Or, would individual member states be able to override/set their own rules regarding Cookie compliance (e.g. Germany has one set of rules, Belgium has another?)

That seems like it would be messy and a nightmare to navigate for website owners. :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

Yeah, I imagine it will take awhile to become law, if it does become law.

I agree. I usually suggest people just use CookieYes to handle their Cookie compliance. I get wanting to roll your own cookie compliance solution, but as a website builder it seems time could be better spent not having to focus on building that out for every possible scenario and then keeping it updated every time the law changes in some country or bloc. I feel like most people would rather not have to add that to their plate of things to think about when building a website.

This is the stuff web developer dreams are made of :laughing:

How can we here in Europe create easy, with no programmer knowledge (which is the ad of elements) the cookies in the homepage? I still can’t find a solution in the discussion. Why is there still no “menu” the create cookies?
Thanks and greetings from Austria.

Take a look at the Info Pop-Up Pro component that is available in the Elements Store; it is the solution I use, even though I have also rolled my own custom one.

Looking at the legal requirements of each country, a simple solution will not work here. For Germany you would have to provide some more information about the cookies used directly in the first layer of the cookie information and later all the additional info needed. You would have to make sure some cookies are not loaded at all when a page is queried and will need to only load after consent. I try to either not use cookies at all or only use technical necessary cookies. For these you do not need a banner at all but just a mention in the data protection declaration.

In California this is heating up. I’ve had two businesses this last week reach out to us because they are being sued over the CA Invasion of Privacy Act. These serial plaintiffs have replaced the ADA lawsuits.

Because we manage websites instead of handing them over to the clients, we took a different approach. Called 9 customers, sold 9 plans.

I looked at CookieYes, but ultimately decided to go with CookieTractor because of their customer service and ease of installation.

I don’t like to post AI generated content, but I asked Perplexity to research the status of the EU’s press release to see where things are now, and I got the following:

Here’s the latest specifically on the GDPR/cookie side of the Digital Omnibus (as of mid‑July 2026):

Where things stand now
• The cookie/banner reforms are part of the Data Omnibus (COM(2025) 837), which amends the GDPR and shifts key cookie rules from the ePrivacy Directive into the GDPR via new Articles 88a and 88b.[loyensloeff +3]
As of 18 June 2026, the Council removed Article 88b (the browser‑level, automated consent signal) from its negotiating text after heavy lobbying; Germany, France and Poland were among the supporters of deletion.[dig +3]
• The European Parliament has not yet taken its final position on Article 88b, and the file is still moving through the JURI and LIBE committees; advocacy groups (e.g. noyb) are urging MEPs to restore the automated consent signal in the next round.[dsgvoscan +3]

Seems we’ll be stuck with a patchwork of Cookie Notices unless they restore Article 88b to shift the burden to web browsers to implement an automated consent signal…

Thanks, Germany (and France and Poland)… :roll_eyes: :face_with_tongue: