How Europe’s biggest sites ask for consent
Every month we visit the most-visited sites in every European country as a first-time visitor from Europe, and look at what happens before anyone clicks: what starts tracking, and how the cookie banner asks. We only publish totals, never a site’s name.
October 2026 · 5718 sites checked · 937 turned automated checks away and 1038 didn’t load; neither is counted
82%start tracking before the visitor chooses anything
34%of cookie banners put refusing on a second screen, or don’t offer it, while accepting takes one click
5%of cookie banners say carrying on counts as agreeing
Of the most visited sites we checked in each country, how many start tracking visitors before asking
- Italy90% of 187 sites
- Malta90% of 71 sites
- Poland90% of 195 sites
- Spain90% of 172 sites
- Norway89% of 214 sites
- Greece89% of 194 sites
- Hungary89% of 191 sites
- Bulgaria88% of 185 sites
- Ireland87% of 174 sites
- Czechia87% of 203 sites
- Portugal86% of 172 sites
- Belgium86% of 183 sites
- France86% of 195 sites
- Romania85% of 196 sites
- Sweden85% of 202 sites
- UK85% of 129 sites
- Slovakia84% of 179 sites
- Lithuania84% of 176 sites
- Croatia83% of 194 sites
- Netherlands83% of 194 sites
- Cyprus82% of 131 sites
- Switzerland81% of 190 sites
- Latvia78% of 187 sites
- Finland78% of 191 sites
- Denmark77% of 208 sites
- Estonia76% of 150 sites
- Iceland76% of 177 sites
- Luxembourg72% of 188 sites
- Slovenia70% of 192 sites
- Germany69% of 212 sites
- Austria67% of 187 sites
- Liechtenstein55% of 99 sites
- Hungary69% of 108 banners
- Estonia65% of 24 banners
- Latvia64% of 41 banners
- Lithuania63% of 40 banners
- Poland58% of 146 banners
- Bulgaria57% of 30 banners
- Slovenia57% of 22 banners
- Romania56% of 136 banners
- Switzerland50% of 112 banners
- Portugal44% of 126 banners
- Iceland40% of 32 banners
- Czechia39% of 123 banners
- Ireland38% of 131 banners
- Malta37% of 44 banners
- Netherlands37% of 134 banners
- Croatia35% of 40 banners
- Austria34% of 122 banners
- Germany32% of 122 banners
- Cyprus30% of 71 banners
- Belgium29% of 139 banners
- Slovakia28% of 130 banners
- Norway26% of 109 banners
- Sweden24% of 121 banners
- Luxembourg24% of 114 banners
- Greece23% of 142 banners
- Liechtenstein22% of 18 banners
- Finland18% of 23 banners
- Italy16% of 141 banners
- UK15% of 95 banners
- Spain12% of 126 banners
- France12% of 143 banners
- Denmark9% of 159 banners
- Lithuania20% of 40 banners
- Malta17% of 44 banners
- Bulgaria15% of 30 banners
- Cyprus14% of 71 banners
- Croatia14% of 40 banners
- Portugal12% of 126 banners
- Romania12% of 136 banners
- Latvia11% of 41 banners
- Slovenia10% of 22 banners
- Estonia9% of 24 banners
- Iceland7% of 32 banners
- Switzerland6% of 112 banners
- Hungary6% of 108 banners
- Liechtenstein6% of 18 banners
- Luxembourg5% of 114 banners
- Austria5% of 122 banners
- Italy4% of 141 banners
- Poland3% of 146 banners
- Spain3% of 126 banners
- Belgium2% of 139 banners
- Greece2% of 142 banners
- Denmark2% of 159 banners
- Sweden2% of 121 banners
- Ireland2% of 131 banners
- Slovakia2% of 130 banners
- France1% of 143 banners
- UK1% of 95 banners
- Norway1% of 109 banners
- Czechia1% of 123 banners
- Netherlands1% of 134 banners
- Germany0% of 122 banners
- Finland0% of 23 banners
Each month we check the most visited sites in each country as a first-time visitor from Europe. How we check
By country
| Sites | Checked | Track before consent | Of those, no banner found | Reject not on the first screen | Say browsing means yes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria (.at) | 187 | 67% | 30% | 34% | 5% |
| Belgium (.be) | 183 | 86% | 22% | 29% | 2% |
| Bulgaria (.bg) | 185 | 88% | 83% | 57% | 15% |
| Switzerland (.ch) | 190 | 81% | 36% | 50% | 6% |
| Cyprus (.cy) | 131 | 82% | 40% | 30% | 14% |
| Czechia (.cz) | 203 | 87% | 34% | 39% | 1% |
| Germany (.de) | 212 | 69% | 40% | 32% | 0% |
| Denmark (.dk) | 208 | 77% | 15% | 9% | 2% |
| Estonia (.ee) | 150 | 76% | 83% | 65% | 9% |
| Spain (.es) | 172 | 90% | 23% | 12% | 3% |
| Finland (.fi) | 191 | 78% | 86% | 18% | 0% |
| France (.fr) | 195 | 86% | 25% | 12% | 1% |
| Greece (.gr) | 194 | 89% | 23% | 23% | 2% |
| Croatia (.hr) | 194 | 83% | 76% | 35% | 14% |
| Hungary (.hu) | 191 | 89% | 40% | 69% | 6% |
| Ireland (.ie) | 174 | 87% | 20% | 38% | 2% |
| Iceland (.is) | 177 | 76% | 78% | 40% | 7% |
| Italy (.it) | 187 | 90% | 20% | 16% | 4% |
| Liechtenstein (.li) | 99 | 55% | 72% | 22% | 6% |
| Lithuania (.lt) | 176 | 84% | 78% | 63% | 20% |
| Luxembourg (.lu) | 188 | 72% | 34% | 24% | 5% |
| Latvia (.lv) | 187 | 78% | 75% | 64% | 11% |
| Malta (.mt) | 71 | 90% | 36% | 37% | 17% |
| Netherlands (.nl) | 194 | 83% | 21% | 37% | 1% |
| Norway (.no) | 214 | 89% | 46% | 26% | 1% |
| Poland (.pl) | 195 | 90% | 21% | 58% | 3% |
| Portugal (.pt) | 172 | 86% | 23% | 44% | 12% |
| Romania (.ro) | 196 | 85% | 27% | 56% | 12% |
| Sweden (.se) | 202 | 85% | 37% | 24% | 2% |
| Slovenia (.si) | 192 | 70% | 85% | 57% | 10% |
| Slovakia (.sk) | 179 | 84% | 21% | 28% | 2% |
| UK (.uk) | 129 | 85% | 18% | 15% | 1% |
Consent tools in use
OneTrust 10% · Cookiebot 8% · Didomi 5% · Usercentrics 3% · CookieYes 3% · Consentmanager 2% of sites checked.
How we check
- Which sites. The most-visited sites on each European country’s domain (.de, .fr, .uk and so on), from the Tranco list (2026-09-26), a research ranking of popular sites (Le Pochat et al., NDSS 2019). Domains that don’t serve a website are left out.
- How. A fresh browser with no cookies opens the homepage and a few other pages, browsing from a European country, and never clicks the banner. Sites show visitors from elsewhere something else, so any check that didn’t browse from Europe isn’t counted.
- Tracking. Analytics and advertising services contacted, or their cookies set, before any choice. Cookieless analytics that need no consent aren’t counted.
- The banner. We read the banner’s text and the buttons on its first screen. An AI model (Jev, from TypeSafe) judges whether one of those buttons refuses, and whether the text says carrying on counts as agreeing. It only counts when it’s at least 70% sure; otherwise that banner is left out of that number.
- Sites we couldn’t check. Our checker says openly that it’s automated, and some sites’ bot protection turns it away. Those sites, and ones that didn’t load, are left out of every number, and we say how many. We don’t disguise the checker to get in.
- Limits. Each site gets one visit a month, so the numbers show how it looked that day. They are not a legal judgement of any site.