An important signal for the advertising industry: the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) remains permitted, and with it the technical foundation for consent management across publishers. This matters especially for view and post-view attribution, where easy Marketing relies heavily on the TCF standard.
Why does this affect us?
Publishers such as major news portals use consent management platforms (CMPs, for example Usercentrics) to obtain consent from their users. This consent is then passed on to all connected vendors in the form of what is known as the TC string. In many cases, that means more than 100 companies at once, easy Marketing among them. Without this signal, it would be unclear whether tracking, for example via a cookie set when a view is served, is permitted. For our customers, that would have meant fewer measurable conversions, inaccurate attribution and incomplete data.
Legal background
The TC string itself has been the focus of several proceedings, including a case in Belgium. That case examined whether the string constitutes personal data and what role IAB Europe plays in the overall process. It is now clear that the TC string can be personal data in certain contexts, but this does not change the fact that the IAB TCF as a whole may continue to be used.
What does this mean for you?
The IAB TCF remains a key standard in digital marketing. Especially in the interplay between publishers, CMPs and vendors, it provides the necessary transparency and legal certainty. We continue to read the TC string in all relevant ad delivery routines, just as before. So for our customers, nothing changes:
- Consent signals arrive reliably
- View and post-view tracking works as usual
- No changes or adjustments required
This ruling corrects the earlier decision of the Belgian data protection authority (APD) from February 2022, which assigned IAB Europe broader responsibility. The decision brings legal clarity. Alongside Google's announcement that third-party cookies will not be blocked in Chrome (for now), this is the second piece of good news for digital marketing in 2025.
