Create Legally Compliant Cookie Banners for the Shopify Online Shop

Cookie banners are often perceived as annoying by many website visitors in particular. The website is called up and a banner appears that you click on and you have to agree also. Cookie banners are in your interest because they not only inform you that you are being tracked but can now also help determine how much can be tracked. And cookies are essential, especially in eCommerce. So let’s learn more about it:

Are Cookie Banners Mandatory?

Cookie banners are now finally mandatory after a long period of legal gray areas and uncertainties. After the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had already ruled that website visitors must expressly consent to the use of cookies that are not absolutely necessary, the BGH has now followed suit.

The hitherto generally accepted note ” We use cookies, by using the website you agree to them ” is therefore no longer legally compliant. While essential or technically necessary cookies do not have to be approved and these may be preset, for cookies that are not essential and only serve further advertising and marketing measures, the express and active consent of website visitors must be obtained (opt-in) by, for example, ticking the appropriate box yourself. Boxes that have already been ticked and that visitors have to remove if they do not agree are not permitted (opt-out). Consent must be given before the cookies requiring consent are set and data processing is started.

Is There Now Legal Clarity?

With regard to obtaining consent, there is now clarity, but it is not the case that there is now a total of 100% clarity because it is not specifically defined what essential cookies are. This is not the job of judges either. In the negotiated case, it was only a question of whether website visitors have to actively consent to the use of cookies or not.

The ePrivacy Regulation, which provides an EU-wide uniform regulation and specific definitions in this area, is still a long time coming due to discrepancies and a lack of compromises between the EU countries.

What does This Mean for My Shopify Store?

In this regard, Shopify has the disadvantage that the online shops do not use cookie banners by default, which is probably due to the fact that Shopify is not a company based in the EU. Of course, there are various solutions for retailers in the EU to use cookie banners, so that the online shop is legally secure and one saves warnings or even fines. Although it is possible to make changes to the theme code in order to place a cookie banner, most of them should not have coding knowledge.

How can I Add a Cookie Banner to My Shopify Shop?

In addition to Cookiebot, a popular cookie banner solution, there are a number of apps in the Shopify App Store that can be used to create legally compliant cookie banners. And the best thing is that the apps are very user-friendly and can be used without coding knowledge so that you can easily create legally compliant cookie banners within a short time. We are now introducing two that you can use, but also one that we advise against.

Cookiebot

Cookiebot is a widespread and, according to its own statements, the most frequently used all-in-one solution when it comes to creating legally compliant cookie banners. What is special is that Cookiebot recognizes all cookies and trackers used on the website and automatically blocks their use or processing until website visitors have given their consent, as is legally required.

A cookie scan takes place every month, after which a report is created on the cookies found, which can also be viewed by website visitors. The cookies found are also automatically categorized. In the paid tariffs, the cookie scan can also be carried out daily for a fee of $72.98 per domain and month.

Depending on the size of the website, there are three other tariffs available in addition to a free tariff (a maximum of one domain with less than 100 subpages):

Premium Small for $10.59 per domain and month (less than 500 subpages)

Premium medium for $24.72 per domain and month (less than 5000 subpages)

Premium Large for $43.55 per domain and month (more than 5000 subpages)

Although fewer features are offered in the free tariff, the essential thing is to fulfill a legally compliant cookie banner. And the legal compliance is also very high, so you are on the safe side with Cookiebot. However, Cookiebot also has a small catch, it has to be implemented, so it is not available as an app, so it has to be coded a little. However, Cookiebot also offers instructions for this.

Free GDPR + Cookie Bar (GDPR / CCPA + Cookie Management)

A very good alternative, which in addition to fulfilling the necessary requirements with regard to the GDPR and current case law, also offers many features, is the free GDPR + cookie bar (GDPR / CCPA + Cookie Management) app.

The cookie banner can be configured individually so that you can configure cookies that require consent – depending on which one you are specifically using – individually. Your shop visitors can then decide which cookie usage they want to allow or not. The design of the cookie banner is also customizable in the Premium plan. It also contains a link that leads directly to the privacy policy. You can also decide whether the cookie banner should only be displayed to your shop visitors in the EU or for everyone. Very practical features are also the possibility that your shop visitors can make deletion and GDPR requests.

The Free GDPR + Cookie Bar offers a Free and Premium plan for $4.99/month. The free plan is completely sufficient because the most important features (legally compliant cookie banner, GDPR requests) are already included. The premium plan includes more designs for the cookie banner and an email header and footer.

At first glance, the app offers useful features and seems to be a good alternative, but we would like to note that we have not yet worked with this app.

GDPR Cookie Bar + ePrivacy Page (by Pandectes)

Anyone who sells in several countries within the EU and therefore has a multilingual online shop is in particularly good hands with GDPR Cookie Bar + ePrivacy Page. In addition to the features that the two apps already presented, GDPR Cookie Bar + ePrivacy supports EU languages. Here, too, it is possible to only display the cookie banner to shop visitors in the EU.

GDPR Cookie Bar + ePrivacy Page offers three tariff options- The free basic tariff already includes the most important features (including cookie banners, supported EU languages, data requests), and the plus tariff for $5.99/month also includes one Speech recognition and several banner modes, plus unlimited inquiries, e-mail templates and priority support in the premium tariff for $14.99/month.  

You May Also Read: 5 Shopify Website Design Tips To Create A Beautiful Shopify Store

Customer Privacy Banner (from Shopify)

In response to the EU’s highest court rulings, Shopify has been offering an in-house app, especially for retailers in the EU, the Customer Privacy Banner app. It is completely free and therefore also offers smaller shops the opportunity to create legally compliant cookie banners for their own Shopify shop without having to invest any money. However, the app currently also has disadvantages and is not 100% compliant with case law. We will go into more detail about the functions and the advantages and disadvantages in this article.

Not recommended: EU Cookie Bar (by Booster Apps)

It is always advisable not to just rely on the name and this is exactly the case with this app. Even if it is called EU Cookie Bar and thus suggests to be compliant with EU law, this is unfortunately not the case. Because the app creates a cookie banner, as it was common for a long time, but is no longer legally compliant. This is because only the notice is displayed that cookies are being used, and shop visitors agree with one click. Opt-in solutions are not offered. Even if the app is free, it should not be used because it does not meet legal requirements.

Conclusion

Since legal compliance is a very important and serious matter that can have extremely unpleasant consequences if it is not complied with, there are accordingly many options for creating legally compliant cookie banners. You decide which is the best and most suitable for you and your business. But especially with apps, as you can see from the example of EU Cookie Bar, you have to be careful because they don’t always offer what they promise.