Overview
- The Federal Court of Justice heard the case in Karlsruhe on Thursday about whether a technology firm can be held liable for cookies placed on users’ devices without consent (case I ZR 5/26).
- Lower courts sided with the plaintiff, with the district court awarding €1,500 in April 2023 and the Frankfurt appeals court reducing that to €100 in December 2025 while finding a breach of the TDDDG.
- Judges flagged open technical questions about how cookie setting is triggered by code on visited sites and who actually writes or reads the data, and the court may send the case back to the appeals court or seek guidance from the European Court of Justice.
- Privacy lawyer Laura Dereje warned that if the appeals court’s view is upheld, written assurances from website owners may not be enough and analytics firms would need extra technical and organizational measures to prevent unauthorized cookie setting.
- The case comes as the EU has proposed storing cookie preferences on devices to reduce banner prompts, a policy change that could alter how consent is recorded and affect who bears practical responsibility for compliance.