Tweakers (DPG MEDIA) doesn’t let you use their website without accepting all cookies, or without paid subscription. is this legal?

20 comments

1. No, they don’t owe you anything. They can set their terms of use.

2. [deleted]

3. Check the Ministry of Privacy Twitter and search for Tweakers. They commented on it some time ago.

4. I really really really *really* doubt Tweakers didn’t do their homework on this and they’re breaking the law.

   Tweakers in fact is the only site I willingly disable my Ghostery/Adblock just to support them.

   Can’t you login on their site and the message disappears?

5. Probably. Just like many other DPG media sites where the default option is “accept all cookies”, and rejecting them takes many clicks and a wall of legal text. The law stipulates that rejecting cookies is the default option and that “cookie walls” cannot bombard users with a wall of text, legalese, or use dark patterns to just let users click “accept” on everything.

   For non-IT people, dark patterns are used when websites want users to click a specific option. For example: big large green “accept” button and a small white “options” button or text link. Our eyes are immediately drawn to the big green accept button and just want the cookie wall to go away (fyi: people are also conditioned towards green = good/desirable). This is wrong. The default option as stipulated by the law is to reject all tracking cookies, and to give users the explicit option to allow them! (of course, no one wants them). Case in point, [HLN’s cookiewall](https://imgur.com/a/GCI86uO) where “accept” is the default, and reject takes extra effort. Note the second image which is the “options” screen. Does the big yellow button mean to accept your settings? Of course not, it’s to accept all cookies (super ambiguous unless paying careful attention). Btw, the “partners” tab lists **302** companies with which they share your data. I may have miscounted, but I didn’t accidentally miscount by 300.

   Anyway, DPG lawyers claim the tweakers cookiewall isn’t illegal, because of course they do.

   More info, read comments on articles. You aren’t the first that is of the opinion that it’s clearly illegal, or at least clearly against the intent of the GDPR, but allowed to exist because of legal ambiguity.

   – https://tweakers.net/nieuws/185482/stichting-van-max-schrems-dient-422-klachten-in-vanwege-illegale-cookiebanners.html
   – https://tweakers.net/plan/3074/we-passen-de-cookiewall-aan-en-maken-abos-trackingvrij.html
   – https://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/2059216/0

   Side-note: ever wonder why DPG sites started pushing for user accounts everywhere, and also a lot of video content even when it is useless? I can’t remember the details, but there’s something that allows them to gather much more info when users have an account. The video player gathers so much tracking info it would make you uncomfortable. DPG media in general has *a lot* of advertising/tracking info that would make a lot of people uncomfortable.

6. It’s completely illegal but so are all the click mazes other websites make you go through. GDPR is clear that tracking is illegal unless, for some reason, a visitor explicitly requests to be tracked. I don’t have numbers, but I’m confident that less than 0,1% of people really want to be tracked by companies without any benefit to themselves. Yet these click mazes probably result in 80%+ of people giving “consent”. That’s proof enough that these people are not actually meaning to give consent but just trying to make the annoying pop-up go away, which the GDPR specifically says is not legally considered consent, because consent needs to be freely given, informed, and explicit (“for example an electronic tick-box that the individual has to explicitly check online or a signature on a form”).

   There’s zero enforcement of GDPR in practice though. The Netherlands has fined three companies for data processing without legal basis, Belgium has fined twelve entities, but a lot of them seem like corrupt revenge lawsuits (like against a school, a “former mayor of a community”, a “communal political association”, a “municipal alderman” and two lawsuits against a “mayor”) and not an honest attempt to fix the massive problem with GDPR being widely ignored.

7. The GDPR site reads: “Allow users to access your service even if they refuse to allow the use of certain cookies”. So I guess they don’t comply with the current rules since the site is basically behind a paywall if you don’t want to accept the cookies.

8. If you use a privacy-minded browser like Brave that disables all trackers, does it matter what option you pick (cookies or no cookies)?

9. Webedia websites (jeuxvideo.com etc) have a similar thing going on in France, as far as people have checked, it’s legal.

10. They have this since 2013 and explain it in one of their articles.

11. It is not lawful, because it means consent has not been freely given.
    See art. 7(4) of the gdpr

    When assessing whether consent is freely given, utmost account shall be taken of whether, inter alia, the performance of a contract, including the provision of a service, is conditional on consent to the processing of personal data that is not necessary for the performance of that contract.

    Tl;dr not giving consent cannot be reason for denial of service

    Source- am privacy jurist

12. No. Either way, I just stay out of the trap.

13. It sounds strange to me that someone’s website has to be publicly accessible. Why wouldn’t it be their right to simply not allow visitors without tracking cookies as long as they give you the choice?

    If you want to enter a private building with security camera’s you can’t demand to have basic access without them actually filming you either and saving the recording.

14. They follow the Dutch privacy commission advice.
    Think the Belgian one actually disagrees with that view, but that’s the reason why it is as it is.

    Their sister site (hardware.info) still has a cookie wall and that DOES break the law.

    See comment section on this article/blog post about it: https://tweakers.net/plan/3074/we-passen-de-cookiewall-aan-en-maken-abos-trackingvrij.html

15. It seems cookie walls are not allowed since 2020.
    https://www.freeprivacypolicy.com/blog/no-cookie-consent-walls-gdpr/

    Here I guess they are applying a loophole by allowing via subscription.

16. the cookie pop-up **is** the problem

17. I just use the “i dont care about cookies” and “cookie autodelete” addons in Firefox. No popups and cookies are automatically deleted.

18. I just use incognito to search literally anything so I don’t care about cookies.

19. When there is bad news about China, our media will spread it at their best. But for this you have to search to find something.

    https://www.jurist.org/news/2021/11/china-personal-data-privacy-law-takes-effect/

20. Fuck DPG and anything related to them