The end of cookie-based video in Europe

Cookie banners were introduced to protect user privacy. In practice, they’ve done the opposite. Most people click “Accept” without reading and privacy becomes a constant interruption rather than a fundamental right.

European regulators are now addressing this at its core. With upcoming changes to EU privacy rules, consent is moving away from individual websites and into the browser. And while this affects the entire web, video is where the consequences are most visible.

Europe’s shift to browser-level consent

The European Commission is modernising its digital privacy framework with a clear objective: reduce cookie banner fatigue and give users meaningful, enforceable control over tracking.

Instead of being asked to consent on every site, users will increasingly manage their privacy preferences directly in their browser. Those preferences, especially regarding tracking and profiling, will apply automatically across websites. This is not about removing consent. It is about making consent persistent and enforceable. For the first time, rejecting tracking becomes a durable choice that websites must respect.

Cookie banners were never meant to become a UX tax. Their underlying purpose was to force organisations to make deliberate choices about which third parties they send data to and to remain accountable for that.

The problem today is that many websites still treat consent as a formality, or skip it entirely. Some, like ASML, do ask clearly before personal data is shared with third parties for advertising. But many others either push users toward “Accept all” or let tracking run regardless of what the user chooses.

In other words: tracking often starts by default, and consent becomes a thin layer of UI on top. Sometimes that “choice” means sharing data with hundreds of partners, so many that neither users nor the organisation publishing the site can realistically maintain a clear view of where data ends up, as in this example from a Dutch supermarket:

Why online video is disproportionately affected

Video is one of the biggest sources of cookie-related friction on the web. Most traditional video platforms rely on tracking cookies, external analytics, or advertising infrastructure. As a result, videos often don’t load until users give consent, leading to the familiar “accept cookies to watch this video” experience.

With browser-level consent becoming the default, this workaround disappears. When tracking is blocked by default, websites can no longer override that choice with a banner. Cookie-based video players either adapt, or they simply don’t load.

Ironically, for privacy-conscious organizations, video risks becoming a point of failure instead of a conversion tool.

Cookie-based video is becoming structurally fragile

The more a video platform depends on tracking, the less reliable it becomes in a privacy-first web.

As users increasingly reject tracking by default, cookie-dependent video players will:

• Fail to load for a growing share of visitors
• Create broken or inconsistent user experiences
• Reintroduce consent friction the EU is actively trying to remove

This is not a temporary compliance issue. It is a structural shift in how the European web operates.

Cookieless video aligns with privacy by design

There is a simpler and more sustainable approach: cookieless video. Cookieless video delivery does not rely on tracking cookies, profiling, advertising identifiers, or third-party scripts. It delivers video without processing personal data.

Because there is nothing to consent to, there is nothing to block.

That is exactly how Mave was built. From the ground up, Mave’s video platform operates without cookies, without tracking, and without personal data collection. There is no advertising layer and no profiling.

As a result, Mave videos:

• Play instantly for all users
• Never trigger cookie banners
• Remain fully functional as browser-level consent becomes the norm

This is not a workaround. It is privacy by design, the principle at the heart of European data protection law. And it is where European regulation is heading.

Privacy-First video is a competitive advantage

As browser-level consent becomes standard, organizations will face a clear choice:

Continue relying on video platforms that require cookie tracking, or adopt solutions that work without it. Cookieless video reduces legal complexity, improves performance, and creates a smoother experience for users.

More importantly, it restores trust by respecting privacy without asking users to make repeated, disruptive choices.

The future of video in Europe

Cookie banners are not disappearing because privacy matters less. They are disappearing because privacy is being handled more intelligently.

Browser-level consent makes one thing clear:

Video that depends on tracking no longer fits the European web. Video that works without cookies, without consent friction, and without compromise does.

That future is privacy-first. And it’s already here.