CMA publishes update on Privacy Sandbox

In July 2024, Google announced that it would be pursuing a new path for Privacy Sandbox and not be deprecating third-party cookies on Chrome in 2025 as previously planned.

Following this, the CMA issued a call for views in order to understand different perspectives from across the industry, which closed on 12 August. It has now issued an update stating that “based on careful consideration of the responses we received, the CMA’s view is that competition concerns remain under Google’s revised approach.”

It continues: “The CMA wants to ensure that these changes are made in a way which supports continued competition in digital advertising.The current commitments would need to be updated to reflect the evolution in Google’s planned Privacy Sandbox browser changes and the CMA is discussing with Google what changes would be required to address the CMA’s competition concerns.” 

The CMA adds that it will publicly consult before taking any decision on whether to accept changes to the commitments and is aiming to do this in Q4 2024. At the same time, it also plans to provide an update on its views relating to the Privacy Sandbox tools and its assessment of testing and trialling results.  

Google has said: “We are engaging with the CMA on Privacy Sandbox following the updated approach we’ve proposed, which lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing. As we finalize this approach, we’ll continue to consult with the CMA, ICO and other regulators globally and look forward to continued collaboration with the ecosystem to build for a private, ad-supported internet.”