Consent-or-pay: Difference between revisions

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'''Consent-or-pay''', or '''consent-or-okay''', is a business tactic in response to the European Union's ''[[General Data Protection Regulation]]'' [[General Data Protection Regulation|(GDPR)]]. Under this model, users of a website must either:

*'''Consent''' to the use of cookies and personal data for targeted advertising, '''or'''

 

The practice generated significant debate among regulators, policymakers, and consumer advocates alike and is viewed as undermining meaningful consent. Despite controversy, the model is being increasingly adopted by large online platforms and news organizations. As of August 2025, 16 of the 50 largest UK news websites had implemented consent-or-pay.<ref name="Press Gazette">{{Cite web |first=Charlotte |last=Tobitt |title=Press Gazette, More UK news publishers are adopting 'consent or pay' advertising model |url=https://pressgazette.co.uk/marketing/consent-or-pay-uk-publishers-advertising-2025/ |url-access=limited |date=21 Aug 2025 |access-date=1 Sep 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250821204423/https://pressgazette.co.uk/marketing/consent-or-pay-uk-publishers-advertising-2025/ |archive-date=21 Aug 2025}}</ref>

The General Data Protection Regulation was passed in 2018 with the aim of protecting online users from excessive data collection by large companies. The regulation does this by requiring companies to allow users to consent to data collection, and this is often done by an opt-in banner or pop-up on the home screen of any given website.

Companies began feeling like they were losing revenue over this new regulation because they could no longer collect data for targeted ads at the same scale they'd done before. This led to the new consent-or-pay model as a workaround.

When a user visits a website, a pop-up consent window is displayed. Traditional options would be '''Accept''' or '''Reject''' cookies. However the user is presented with the options to '''Accept or Pay'''.

*The payment is typically a low fee (e.g. £1.99 per month).

*Many of the sites that use the model were previously free-to-access and funded primarily through advertising.

*Consumers must now "pay" either with their personal data or with money.

This effectively introduces a '''paywall for previously freely accessible content''' even if no traditional subscription model exists.

This binary model of data collection creates the illusion of consent because users are compelled to choose one of two bad options, both of which require loss in exchange for content that is generally considered free access.

Companies often inform users that cookies and data collection are for "personalized ads" and "improving services". What they do not express is how a user's personal data is stored in data centers, shared among third-parties, sold to data brokers, and often become publicized through breaches. Users underestimate the costs of giving away their personal data, believing that advertisements of things they're already interested in makes their data a fair trade-off.

The consent-or-pay model creates a false equivalence between two options. It denotes that the company loses, say, $2 or $5 a month when a user rejects targeted ads. This is an impossible metric considering that there is no way to guess whether the individual user would have purchased any item that is advertised to them. At best, this means the monthly fee is completely arbitrary. At worst, it is based upon a percentage of users who do happen to make purchases and is then unfairly distributed upon all users, irrespective of purchase or ad consumption, which is also known as ''average revenue per user (ARPU).''

===Illusion of fair exchange===

For users, the consent-or-pay model leads to a false belief that a fair exchange is taking place. When a company asks for a price as low as $2 a month while seeking data collection as a "free" alternative, the user is led to believe that they are fairly reimbursing the company for loss ad revenue, especially for such a low monthly fee. In susceptible users, they may be tricked into believing this is a fair and ethical decision they are making, thus happily choosing to engage in a deliberately misleading practice.

After a year-long investigation by the European Commission, [[Meta]] was fined on 23 April 2025 for failing to comply with the [[Digital Markets Act]] (DMA). The European Commission's investigation targeted Meta's consent-or-pay model because it failed to meet the DMA's criteria of reducing personalized data for targeted ads and it does not allow users to freely consent.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 Jun 2024 |title=Commission sends preliminary findings to Meta over its "Pay or Consent" model for breach of the Digital Markets Act |url=https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_3582 |website=European Commission}}</ref> Consequently, Meta was fined with €228 million in the month of April, and by July, the European Commission warned that the social media company may face accrued daily fines if they continue employing this tactic.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Foo Yun Chee |title=Meta may face daily fines over pay-or-consent model, EU warns |url=https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/meta-will-only-make-limited-changes-pay-or-consent-model-eu-says-2025-06-27/ |date=27 Jun 2025 |access-date=1 Sep 2025 |website=Reuters |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/WlLFg |archive-date=1 Sep 2025}}</ref>

==Other uses==

Many media outlets have adopted consent-or-pay throughout Europe, including:

*MeridioNews<gallery mode="slideshow">

File:Screenshot 20250910-195708 IronFox.png|alt=Screenshot of MeridioNews' consent-or-pay policy viewed on a mobile browser. (written in Italian)|Screenshot of MeridioNews' consent-or-pay policy appearing after rejecting cookies on [https://meridionews.it/piazzale-anita-garibaldi-ennesimo-raid-dei-vandali-la-provocazione-di-artale-mettiamo-una-garitta/ one of their articles]

File:08cd9c3c-fd76-4cc0-bf9a-0e85d8133609.png|alt=(machine-translated from Italian) screenshot of MeridioNews' consent-or-pay policy appearing after rejecting cookies on one of their articles, viewed from a mobile device|(machine-translated) screenshot of MeridioNews' consent-or-pay policy

===Criticisms from policymakers===

In 2024, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published a non-binding opinion on "Valid Consent in the Context of Consent or Pay Models Implemented by Large Online Platforms." The board denotes that the consent-or-pay model does not constitute as valid consent and that appropriate alternative measures to the model should provide users with an "equivalent alternative". Additionally, they say that if a company wishes to use a payment model, then the opposing equal alternative should not involve processing personal data. Any choice in which users feel compelled to consent does not qualify as valid consent.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=17 Apr 2024 |title=EDPB: 'Consent or Pay' models should offer real choice |url=https://www.edpb.europa.eu/news/news/2024/edpb-consent-or-pay-models-should-offer-real-choice_en |access-date=1 Sep 2025 |url-status=live |website=European Data Protection Board}}</ref>  

===Consumer advocates===

''noyb'' is a data protection advocacy organization based in Austria that pays particular attention to the General Data Protection Regulation and its violations <ref>{{Cite web |title=About Us |url=https://noyb.eu/en/about-us |website=noyb}}</ref>. In November of 2023, the advocacy group filed an official complaint with the Austrian Data Protection Authority against tech giant Meta for lacking "any valid legal basis for [pay-or-okay]. [...] Meta is now trying to extort supposed consent from its users with a 'yes or pay' choice"<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 Nov 2023 |title=COMPLAINT UNDER ARTICLE 77(1) GDPR |url=https://noyb.eu/sites/default/files/2023-11/Complaint%20-%20Meta%20Pay%20or%20Okay%20-%20REDACTED.pdf |website=noyb - European Centre for Digital Rights}}</ref>. This complaint was due to the significant costs of rejection of personalized ads through Meta's [[Facebook]] for €12.99 per month and [[Instagram]] for €8 per month, approximating a combined total of €251.88 ($294.74USD) each year<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 Nov 2023 |title=noyb files GDPR complaint against Meta over "Pay or Okay" |url=https://noyb.eu/en/noyb-files-gdpr-complaint-against-meta-over-pay-or-okay |website=noyb}}</ref>. ''noyb'' continues to report that the tech giant sets a bad precedent for other social media platforms to follow suit, possibly leading to €35,000 per family for the simple act of data protection.

The effects of the consent-or-pay model vary widely.

*Advertising Week reported in September of 2023 that only 30% of users accept the cookies after the GDPR<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mititelu |first=Andra |title=As the Open Marketplace Fails, Advertisers Are Turning to Publishers to Reach Audiences |url=https://advertisingweek.com/as-the-open-marketplace-fails-advertisers-are-turning-to-publishers-to-reach-audiences/ |website=Advertising Week |date=2023

|access-date=1 Sep 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927212627/https://advertisingweek.com/as-the-open-marketplace-fails-advertisers-are-turning-to-publishers-to-reach-audiences/ |archive-date=27 Sep 2023}}</ref>.

 

*Also in 2023, The Drum reported that as much as 40% of users simply use a {{Wplink|VPN service|VPN}} in order to bypass the regional consent-or-pay web block<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Connell |first=Vanessa |title=70% of consumers blocking cookies online, research shows |url=https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2023/05/09/70-consumers-blocking-cookies-online-research-shows |website=The Drum |date=9 May 2023 |access-date=1 Sep 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230511090722/https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2023/05/09/70-consumers-blocking-cookies-online-research-shows |archive-date=11 May 2023}}</ref>. A VPN allows users to access webpages by rerouting their IP's to foreign countries, often seen as the most accessible and fair way to protect themselves from privacy violations.

 

*In 2025, the Press Gazette stated, "When users are equally offered the chance to 'accept all' or 'reject all' cookies, consent rates are typically somewhere around 70-80%, according to both Skovgaards and Contentpass founder Dirk Freytag"<ref name="Press Gazette" />.

The Guardian develops a new "contextual advertising" model that bases ads upon whatever page the user is currently viewing (i.e. food ingredients on a recipe page). They say, "It's a perfect advertising product for a privacy conscious brand and a brand doing the right thing." In 2023, they've report a 35% increase in clicks.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Maher |first=Bron |title=Guardian gets around readers who reject cookies with new advertising product |url=https://pressgazette.co.uk/marketing/guardian-light-reject-cookies-advertising-stereotype/ |url-access=limited |website=Press Gazette |date=21 Nov 2023 |access-date=1 Sep 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128184011/https://pressgazette.co.uk/marketing/guardian-light-reject-cookies-advertising-stereotype/ |archive-date=28 Nov 2023}}<nowiki>}}</nowiki></ref>

[https://noyb.eu/en/noybs-pay-or-okay-report-how-companies-make-you-pay-privacy noyb's Pay or Okay report: how companies make you pay for privacy]