The Media Association of the Free Press (MVFP) and the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) are railing against the European Data Protection Board’s (EDSA) idea to ban publishers’ controversial pay-or-consent offers. At a meeting between EU data protection authorities and stakeholders in Brussels on Monday, unions pointed out that the mandatory third proposal version that was brought forward has no basis in data protection law. Furthermore, such a move would massively harm Free Press Online’s funding: it risks being a “direct attack on the publishers’ business model”.
Advertisement
In the third option, readers neither have to agree to interest-based, targeted advertising, including tracking, nor have to pay for reading newspapers or magazines. However, for both associations, there is no question about the data protection legality of the pay-or-OK model used by press publications throughout Europe.
The Data Protection Conference of Federal and State Governments declared such a “pure subscription approach” to be generally acceptable in 2023. Accordingly, tracking must meet all requirements of informed, effective consent under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). EU data protection supervisors have Guidelines have already been prepared for this,
Civil rights activist: Pay or OK is incompatible with the GDPR
If the EDPB “even gives the impression that data protection law requires a third option”, then according to the MVFP and BDZV, the body would be “irresponsibly ignoring clear case law” of the European Court of Justice. Furthermore, publishers would be forced to “give away their high-cost editorial products – outside of tough payment constraints – for free or for inadequate economic consideration”. Given the ongoing transition to digital editions, readership and advertising sales are “inevitable in themselves”.
Civil rights organization Access Now wants to protest with a report Make it clear that the central problem with these models is “their incompatibility with the GDPR” and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Pay or OK makes “privacy a luxury commodity”, the association insists. Such approaches force people to “consent to aggressive behavioral advertising” or pay for exercising their right to freedom of information. Due to the EU’s “fragmented and inadequate response” so far, payment or consent has become the standard model for thousands of companies.
Fear that “real” consent is gone
At the center of criticism from civil rights activists is Meta’s adoption of a subscription model for Facebook and Instagram. “In reality, most people faced with such charges have no choice but to accept the use of their data,” Max Schrems, founder of Austrian data protection organization Knob, complains.“The vast majority have no interest in being tracked. That’s a big problem.” If the EDPB legitimizes META’s approach in its planned binding statement, companies from all sectors could follow this example. This would mean the end of “real” consent. The EU Commission is currently investigating Meta’s payment model on the basis of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Noyab Also sued the Hamburg Data Protection Authority in the summerBecause he raised no objection to Spiegel’s pay-or-OK model. Many relevant facts in the case were never investigated.
(MKI)
