John O'Brien, Senior Associate at Reed Smith LLP, examines recent guidance on cookies from the ICO and CNIL, highlighting how they diverge, and what organisations should do whilst the uncertainty continues.
No privacy issue confuses EU organisations more than the rules governing the use of cookies on websites. Companies consistently struggle with this area of law, which is unsurprising, as EU Member States continue to have different regulatory approaches and laws for cookies. For those that have become used to the (relative) harmonisation of the GDPR, grappling with disparate national cookies laws can seem utterly bewildering.