Cookie Consent in Europe: How 425 Top Websites Ask for Permission
We loaded the most visited websites in 17 EU countries and the UK as a first-time visitor and recorded what each one did before and after we answered its cookie banner. Fewer than half let you say no on the first screen, and the country you visit from makes a big difference.
Quick answer
Of 425 popular European websites, 74% showed a cookie banner. Only 44% of those banners offered a free way to refuse on the first screen, 10% asked visitors to pay or register to refuse, and 16% had already set advertising cookies before the visitor made any choice.
- Sites analysed
- 425 of 600 scanned
- Countries
- 17 EU countries and the UK
- Method
- Real browser, German connection
Reviewed against official sources on October 8, 2026. This guide is general information, not legal advice.
Key findings
74%
of top sites show a cookie banner
44%
of banners let you refuse on the first screen
10%
of banners ask you to pay or register to refuse
16%
of sites with a banner set advertising cookies before you choose
18%
of sites with a banner set Google Analytics cookies before you choose
0 → 3
advertising cookies before and after clicking accept (median)
1. Fewer than half let you say no on the first screen
European regulators agree that refusing cookies should be as easy as accepting them. In its 2023 Cookie Banner Taskforce report, the European Data Protection Board recorded that a vast majority of national authorities treat a banner with an accept button but no refuse option on the same layer as an infringement. Yet of the 316 banners we found, only 139 offered a free refuse option next to the accept button. The rest sent people into a settings panel to say no, or offered no free way out at all.
What the first screen of the banner offered (316 banners)
2. Where you are decides whether you can refuse
The gap between countries is wide. Sites in France, Italy and Spain, whose regulators have spelled out that a refuse option belongs on the first screen, mostly offer one. France's CNIL fined Google and Facebook at the end of 2021 for making refusal harder than acceptance, Italy's Garante published its cookie guidelines in 2021, and Spain's AEPD updated its guide in 2023 to require refusal at the same level as acceptance. In Germany, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Greece, most banners only offered accept next to a settings link or a paid option.
Banners with a free refuse option on the first screen, by country
Each country is its own top sites, between 8 and 37 per country after exclusions. Grey bars mark countries with fewer than 15 banners, so treat those as an indication rather than a ranking.
3. Tracking often starts before you choose
A banner is meant to ask before anything is stored. We recorded every cookie the browser held before we touched the banner. 49 of the 316 sites with a banner (16%) had already set advertising cookies, mostly from Meta (Facebook), Google Ads, Criteo, Adform and PubMatic. 56 (18%) had set Google Analytics cookies, which regulators have generally said need consent.
Most banners do hold advertising back until you agree. On the 247 sites where we clicked accept, the median number of advertising cookies went from 0 before the click to 3 after it.
Sites with a banner that set cookies before any choice (316 sites)
Audience measurement (for example Nielsen, Gemius and Comscore) is shown separately because some national rules allow limited measurement without consent.
4. One banner in ten says: accept, or pay
32 banners (10%) gave visitors two options: accept tracking, or subscribe or register to use the site without it. Almost all were news and media sites, most of them in France, Germany, Spain and Belgium. In April 2024 the European Data Protection Board said that, in most cases, large online platforms cannot get valid consent by offering only a choice between tracking and a fee, and should offer a free alternative without behavioural advertising. How that applies to smaller publishers is still being worked out country by country.
5. Who runs the banners
A handful of consent platforms power most banners. About a quarter of sites built their own banner or used a tool we could not identify, which is common among very large sites such as marketplaces and big publishers.
Consent tool behind each banner (316 banners)
What this means for your own site
- • Put refuse next to accept. Same layer, same size, same effort. A settings link is not enough on its own.
- • Load nothing optional before the choice. Analytics and advertising tags should wait until the visitor agrees.
- • Start optional categories switched off. Pre-ticked boxes are not consent.
- • Check what your site really loads. Plugins and tag managers add trackers that never show up in your own settings.
Get it right on your site
A cookie policy and a banner with a real refuse button
Create a cookie policy that lists the services your site actually uses, then add a consent banner that puts refuse next to accept, keeps optional categories off by default and blocks tags until visitors agree.
- Refuse on the first screen
- Scripts wait for consent
- Free to start
How we did it
Sites. We took the 600 highest ranked websites on the country domains of 17 EU countries and the UK (.de, .fr, .co.uk and so on) from the Tranco top sites list 26Y29, with at most 45 sites per country so no single country dominates.
Browser and location. Each site was loaded on 7 and 8 October 2026 in a fresh, cookie-free Chromium browser through a connection in Frankfurt, Germany, so sites treated us as a visitor from the EU. We confirmed the connection's country before, during and after the scan.
What we recorded. After the page settled, and before touching anything, we recorded every cookie and network request, whether a consent banner was visible, and the label of every button inside it. We then clicked accept where we could and recorded again.
Definitions. A refuse option counts when a button such as "Reject all", "Only necessary" or "Continue without accepting" sits in the same banner as the accept button, in any of the languages covered. Buttons that require paying or registering do not count as a free refusal. Advertising cookies are cookies from known ad networks, or first-party cookies written by ad tools such as Meta's _fbp and Google Ads' _gcl_au. Google requests sent with consent denied (Consent Mode) are not counted as tracking.
Exclusions. Of the 600 sites, 175 were left out: 58 did not load, 51 blocked automated browsers, 53 redirected to a site on another domain, and 13 returned an empty page.
Limits. Some banners only appear some of the time or load late, so the banner figures are minimums. The scan reflects one visit from one location on two days, homepages only. We report totals rather than naming individual sites.
Use these figures
The figures and charts are free to reuse in articles, reports and talks. Please credit PolicyForge and link to this page.
PolicyForge (2026). Cookie Consent in Europe: How 425 Top Websites Ask for Permission. https://policyforge.co/research/eu-cookie-consent-study
Download the totals (CSV)Frequently asked questions
What share of European websites offer a reject button on their cookie banner?
In our October 2026 scan of 425 popular websites across 17 EU countries and the UK, 44% of cookie banners offered a free way to refuse on the first screen. The rest only offered accept and a settings link, or asked people to pay or register to refuse.
Is a cookie banner without a reject button legal?
European regulators say refusing must be as easy as accepting. In its January 2023 Cookie Banner Taskforce report, the EDPB recorded that a vast majority of authorities consider a banner with an accept button but no refuse option on the same layer to be an infringement. France, Italy and Spain have issued guidance or fines along the same lines. This is general information, not legal advice.
Do websites set tracking cookies before you click accept?
Some do. 15.5% of the sites with a cookie banner had already set advertising cookies before we clicked anything, and 17.7% had set Google Analytics cookies. The usual sources were Meta (Facebook), Google Ads, Criteo, Adform and PubMatic.
What is a consent or pay cookie wall?
A consent or pay wall gives visitors two choices: accept tracking, or pay (or register) to use the site without it. 10.1% of the banners we found worked this way, mostly on news sites. The EDPB said in April 2024 that large online platforms should in most cases offer a free alternative that does not involve behavioural advertising.
Which cookie consent tools are most common in Europe?
Among the banners we could attribute, OneTrust was the most common, followed by Didomi and Sourcepoint. About a quarter of banners were built in-house or used a tool we could not identify.
Can I use these figures?
Yes. The figures and charts are free to reuse, including in articles and reports, as long as you credit PolicyForge and link to this page. The totals are available as a CSV download.
Sources
- EDPB, report of the Cookie Banner Taskforce (January 2023)
- EDPB, Opinion 08/2024 on consent or pay models (April 2024)
- CNIL, closure of the injunction issued against Google
- Garante Privacy, cookie guidelines (10 June 2021)
- AEPD, guide on the use of cookies (July 2023)
- Tranco top sites list 26Y29
This study describes what websites did during our scan. It is general information, not legal advice, and it does not say whether any individual site complies with the law.