Google Chrome’s long-delayed move to block third-party cookies has now come under fire from German publishers and advertisers, who say it would violate EU law. In 2020, Apple’s Safari browser began blocking third-party cookies, two years before Google’s Chrome browser plans. Google then delayed the move until 2023, commenting that “it’s clear that the entire ecosystem needs more time to get there.
Now, according to the Financial Times, hundreds of publishers, advertisers and media groups in Germany have asked EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager to intervene. Axel Springer, the publisher of Politico, has filed a 108-page complaint with the EU.
Online publishers must maintain a space that allows them to require their users’ consent to process data, rather than letting Google take over, the complaint said. Google must respect the relationship between publishers and users without interfering.
Google’s privacy sandbox program for its Chrome browser aims to protect users by ending third-party cookies and replacing them with other forms of ad serving tools. Many other platforms and browsers have stopped supporting third-party cookies, a Google spokesperson said, but Google is the only one to do so publicly and in consultation with technical standards bodies, regulators and industry, while also proposing new alternative technologies.
Separately, Google has reportedly stepped up its lobbying efforts in the European Union, hoping to block or weaken the latter’s proposal to curb Big Tech through the Digital Markets Act.