Germany: Lawsuit on cookies consent banner (Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) vs BurdaForward GmbH)

On 29 November 2022, the District Court of Munich I issued a ruling in the case brought by the German Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) against BurdaForward GmbH on the basis of the German Telecommunications Telemedia Data Protection Act. The court established that users' consent to the processing of their data was not obtained freely, as the design of the cookie consent banner created undue differences between the amount of effort required to consent and to opt-out. However, the court dismissed claims of insufficient information about the use of collected data and the relationship with third parties as these obligations only arise from the GDPR, which was not brought forward as a legal basis for vzbv's claims.