The Future of User Consent: Embrace Google Consent Mode V2

Non-compliant websites will lose the ability to fully utilise Google advertising features after March 6, 2024. If you are unsure whether your website currently has Consent Mode implemented, you can submit your website domain to [email protected]. Our marketing experts will reach out to assist you.

What is Consent Mode V2 😲

In a recent announcement, the European Commission has designated six ‘gatekeeper’ organisations, including Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft, that must comply with the Digital Markets Act by March 6, 2024, or face severe fines. These organisations must ensure that they only handle consented data following the Transparency Consent Framework 2.0 (TCF) standard.

Google’s implementation of TCF is known as “Consent Mode” and is a Google product. However, all major advertising platforms must comply with their methods and maintain the same level of user privacy when honouring consent choices. Without a valid and TCF-compliant implementation, advertising companies will be required to delete or not store your tracking data. Repeatedly sending non-compliant data could result in the suspension of advertising accounts.

Failure to Comply

Fines: Up to 10% of the company’s total worldwide annual turnover, 20% for repeat infringements

Periodic penalty payments: Up to 5% of a company’s average daily turnover.

Remedies: They can either be behavioural or structural remedies, such as selling parts of the business

To comply, the first step is to have a functioning cookie consent notice. Consent Mode is designed to work alongside the cookie consent notice. Popular Consent Management Platforms (CMPs) such as CookieBot, CookiePro, and OneTrust have built-in support for Consent Mode, which simplifies the implementation process. If you have a custom cookie consent notice, it can still be implemented with Consent Mode but may require additional integration work.

Often, web tagging is not configured correctly to respect users’ preferences as indicated by the cookie banners. This is usually due to how the tags are configured in tag managers such as Google Tag Manager.

Once you have confirmed a working and compliant consent notice, you can start integrating Consent Mode. The integration process will depend on the CMP you use and how your tags are deployed. Most popular CMPs provide detailed documentation. For other publishers like Microsoft Ads, we recommend updating your tags to comply with the TCF V2 framework. Each publisher may have different requirements, but in general, you will need to set a new flag or variable based on the user’s consent choices.

What the future holds for Privacy & Consent

Please note that this is an evolving thing, as advertisers enable new consent features and as additional gatekeepers are identified. It is always advisable to take a proactive approach to managing your tag management. If you need assistance with implementing Consent Mode, our experts at Assisted have experience and expertise in various CMPs and integrating Consent Mode.