An EU appeals court has confirmed in a ruling that a mechanism called the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) — which enables tracking and, consequently, tracking-based online advertising — is not compatible with the cornerstone of Europe’s data protection law: the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
In passing the ruling, the court affirmed the position taken by the Belgian Data Protection Authority, which had reached the same conclusion on the legality of the TCF back in 2022.
On paper, at least, this looks like a big win for privacy, privacy advocates, users, and privacy-focused services like AdGuard. And while the ruling only applies to the EU, it’s still a positive development.
It remains to be seen how it will affect Big Tech companies, such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe, and Meta, that are responsible for the lion’s share of such tracking. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), which created TCF, will have to pay a fine and make changes to it. European regulators will oversee these changes.
