The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) issued in April 2024 the Opinion 08/2024 under Art.64(2) of the GDPR addressing the validity of consent in ‘Consent or Pay’ models used by “large online platforms”. It has also announced its intention to publish guidelines with a broader scope at a later stage.

The Opinion is likely to have unintended consequences, by increasing legal uncertainty for many more businesses beyond only “large online platforms”, and ultimately undermining the sustainability of some digital services and the ability for users to access diverse sets of services and content online for free. In particular, the Opinion ignores the need to strike the appropriate balance between the right to data protection and the freedom to conduct business and introduces an additional requirement, namely to provide a “free alternative without behavioural advertising” when ‘Consent or Pay’ models are used.

In order to further demonstrate that contextual advertising may not be suitable as a source of funding for some services, we need your support gathering relevant data points to assess the practical and economic implications of the EDPB requiring the implementation of a free alternative without personalised advertising for online services.

Your valuable input will only take a few minutes to share and will be kept strictly confidential. Additionally, you can choose to answer “I prefer not to answer” if you do not wish to provide information to certain questions.

The survey is open for your participation until 11th November 2024.

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* Which vertical best describes your company's primary focus?

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* How many unique users visit your online service(s) on a monthly basis?

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* What markets is your company active in*? (please select all that apply)

*active means that your online services are accessed by users situated in those jurisdictions

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* Are the online services you provide funded/partially funded by advertising?

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* What percentage of your total revenue is accounted for by online advertising?

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* What types of advertising do you currently rely on for monetisation?

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* What percentage of your company’s current online advertising revenue comes from personalised advertising?

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* If your company were to switch exclusively to contextual advertising, how do you estimate the impact on your company’s online advertising revenue?

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* How confident are you in the effectiveness of contextual advertising compared to personalised advertising?

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* Does your company use ‘Consent or Pay’ model(s) on the online service(s) it provides?

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* Does your company plan to move towards a ‘Consent or Pay’ model in the next 12 months?

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