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Bavaria: Regional Court of Passau rules in favor of Meta's cookie banners
On April 9, 2024, the Regional Court of Passau in Bavaria issued its decision no. 4 O 260/234 O 260/23, in which it dismissed an appeal against Meta Platforms Ireland concerning the lawful processing of data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Background to the decision
The court noted that the complaint was in connection with a data scraping incident and due to monitoring of the Facebook Messenger service, processing of 'off-F data' (outside Meta technologies), and data transfer to the US. The cookie banner used to obtain consent was also examined by the court.
Findings of the court
Notably, the court highlighted that the processing of off-F data was in accordance with Articles 6(1)(a) and 9(2) of the GDPR. The court noted that consent was obtained through the use of cookie banners and the fact that the 'allow all cookies' button was in blue color did not constitute a violation of Article 25(2) of the GDPR. The court reasoned that the color is not a default setting, but a common and permitted visual highlight that does not affect the user's active decision-making ability. Additionally, the court could not identify any illegal data transfers to the US.
Outcomes
In light of the above, the court dismissed the appeal.
You can read the decision, only available in German, here.
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