In April 2024, to address a request by the Dutch, Norwegian & Hamburg Data Protection Authorities and based on Art. 64(2) GDPR, the EDPB adopted an Opinion to address the validity of consent and process personal data for the purposes of behavioural advertising in the context of ‘consent or pay’ models deployed by large online platforms.

EDPB Chair highlighted that “Online platforms should give users a real choice when employing ‘consent or pay’ models. The models we have today usually require individuals to either give away all their data or to pay. As a result, most users consent to the processing in order to use a service, and they do not understand the full implications of their choices."

Overall, EDPB considers that, "in most cases, it will not be possible for them to comply with the requirements for valid consent, if they confront users only with a choice between consenting to processing of personal data for behavioural advertising purposes and paying a fee."

In a nutshell, offering only a paid alternative to services which involve the processing of personal data for behavioural advertising purposes is not sufficient. To develop alternatives, large online platforms are invited to consider providing individuals with an ‘equivalent alternative’ that does not entail the payment of a fee.

This is where ID side Tech chimes in: for consent to be free, individuals should be provided with an appropriate tool empowering them to bypass any imbalance of power glitch, set by-default choices without hindrance or negative impact, share those easily, and drastically reduce consent requests.

As the EDPB envisages, "in addition to this Art. 64(2) Opinion" to "develop guidelines on ‘consent or pay’ models with a broader scope and will engage with stakeholders on these upcoming guidelines", ID side will stand ready to contribute and share about its prototypes and insights.