New Guidelines for Cookie Usage in Italy as of January 10, 2022

TLTR

Starting from January 10, 2022, the new guidelines for cookie usage in Italy come into effect.

These new rules have been established to ensure the compliance of all websites with the GDPR and the ePrivacy directive, adapting to the development of increasingly pervasive tracking technologies and correcting certain incorrect data acquisition methods used by some websites.

The main changes include:

• Greater user control over given consents.
• Prohibition of consent through page scrolling or the use of a ‘cookie wall.’
• Prohibition of using the so-called ‘legitimate interest’ to install cookies: cookies can only be installed with explicit user consent (and this consent must be demonstrable).

What are the new cookie rules?

The privacy and cookie policy rules that came into effect on May 25, 2018, remain unchanged; the changes apply specifically to profiling cookies, for which consent must be given.

Here are the updates regarding the cookie banner:

• It must contain the buttons “Accept” and “Decline” as mandatory elements.
• Users must be able to make granular choices about the functionalities, third parties, and categories of cookies to be installed.
• Users must be able to update their tracking preferences at any time (so there must be a link to this functionality on every page).
• Consent via simple scrolling is no longer valid (this was allowed in Italy until January 9).
• Cookie walls are not allowed (a cookie wall is a barrier that prevents access to site content unless the required consents are given).
• Consent must be re-requested after a minimum term of 6 months (the banner must reappear to the user after at least 6 months, requiring them to confirm consent).
• The appeal to the so-called ‘legitimate interest’ for cookie installation is no longer valid: consent must be proven to have been obtained.

How to Make a Cookie Banner Compliant

To be compliant with these rules, the cookie banner must include mandatory buttons to accept or decline all cookies, allow for more personalized choices, and must not block navigation without consent or be accepted simply through scrolling.

Websites created by our “Iubenda Partner” agency, will be equipped with a banner that can be customized, as shown in the example below:

Furthermore, on each page, there will be a link to allow users of the site to change their cookie choices.

In this case as well, websites created by our agency will display a customizable banner that will resemble the following:

The Importance of Cookies and Penalties for Non-Compliance

Remember that cookies are data fragments of the user that are stored to enhance browsing: they can be technical, statistical, or profiling cookies. Their value is increasingly important and absolutely strategic in a digital marketing campaign.

Neglecting this aspect would mean losing valuable data for marketing campaigns and also risking heavy penalties for improper behavior.

In fact, administrative fines can reach up to 20 million euros or, if the amount is higher, 2% or 4% of the global annual turnover