The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has provided welcome clarity
on the consent requirements around the use of cookies by website
operators. As if it were ever in doubt, pre-ticked boxes cannot be
used as a means of obtaining a website user's consent to the
use of cookies.
The clarity from the ECJ has come in the form of its ruling in
the Planet49 case. Planet49 (a German company) organised
promotional lotteries on its website. To enter, entrants had to
provide certain personal details. The entry page also had two tick
boxes which the entrant had to engage with. The first, which was
not pre-ticked, had to be ticked to participate. Ticking the box
gave consent to the entrant being contacted by various businesses
about their offers. The second box, which was pre-ticked, gave
consent for cookies to be placed on the entrant's device. The
second tick box did not need to be ticked to participate, but if
the entrant did not wish to have cookies dropped, he had to untick
the
