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A significant EU court ruling has found that the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) — the system behind most cookie banners and tracking consents in Europe — violates GDPR. Earlier this month, a Belgian Court of Appeal ruled that the Transparency and Consent Framework was illegal — the TCF has no lawful basis for processing personal data — with significant implications for the digital advertising industry.
THE TCF is a IAB Europe framework relied upon by Google Ads, Meta/Facebook Ads, Amazon, Microsoft and X (Twitter) across Europe but the legal foundation for all tracking-based advertising (i.e. personalised ads using cookies or IDs) is effectively gone. The European Court of Justice (CJEU) had previously ruled that Transparency & Consent (TC) Strings (data records) qualified as personal data and were therefore governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), with IAB Europe deemed a joint data controller with respect to the TC strings.
This is a major headache for platforms such as Google Ads and will have a knock-on effect for all businesses reliant on these platforms for reaching customers.
This ruling has been six years in the making following a complaint by Johnny Ryan of The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) back in 2019. Ryan argued, amongst other things, that the real-time bidding system which relies on TCF, amounted to mass surveillance. In May 2025, a Belgian Court of Appeal deemed the framework to have no legal basis.
In simple terms, the TCF is a system websites use to ask your permission (via familiar cookie pop-ups) to track your behaviour online. But instead of just the website you are currently on tracking you, it lets hundreds of other companies access your data. The Court of Appeal essentially found that people don’t really understand what they are agreeing to and that the system lacks consent and therefore breaches GDPR. In behavioural terms, my guess is that website users are desperate to by-pass the nuisance factor of consent pop-ups and rush to close them as soon as possible without considering the implications of what they are consenting to. Either way, it’s all going to change now.
So what next?
As marketers, platforms like Google Ads and Meta Advertising have represented enormous convenience. Website users agreed to be tracked (even if they didn’t realise it) and the accuracy of targeting meant that ads-savvy marketers were able to generate a positive return on investment by targeting different audiences based on their search history, browsing habits, location and device. This deep access to user data throughout the sales pipeline presented exact ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) metrics which justified marketing budgets for performance marketers.
Now though, marketers must rethink their strategies — paid advertising will become less efficient and as a result the Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) will increase. Ad targeting will not be as accurate so the ROAS will undoubtedly decline, as will the accuracy of the metric given that the same level of tracking (e.g. cross-site conversion tracking and multi-touch attribution) is no longer viable using current tracking practices.
Platforms like Google Ads and Meta Advertising must adapt by tightening consent mechanisms or moving to a consent-free model, relying more on contextual targeting. Right now, these platforms appear to be behind the curve on this and may be waiting for enforcement to begin before acting. With chatbots also impacting search usage (e.g. zero-click searches), it’s a turbulent time for digital advertising.
We recently wrote an article explaining why email marketing was still king in 2025 and that is even more evident now that digital advertising is in for such a seismic shake-up. Building your own database, using a CRM or email marketing platform will be very important over the next couple of years – think of it as a value exchange – what can you offer a prospective customer to part with their email address? Why should they engage in an early stage conversation with your brand if they are not currently in the market for your product or service? (Don’t forget to ask for consent!)
Businesses must adapt by building their own communities of followers and investing in end-to-end marketing activities rather than over relying on digital ad platforms.
Contextual targeting is ‘old school’ advertising placement. For example, hiking gear advertisements get placed in outdoor magazines. The message matches the moment and the same happens online with products or services advertised on related blogs, YouTube channels etc. In fact, this ruling may well help high-traffic niche websites to grow advertising revenues.
Capturing attention is going to get harder, so holding it is likely to become more valuable. This is where strategic marketing becomes an imperative. Relying on advertising alone — as many small businesses successfully do — won’t cut it in this changing landscape.
