The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a consultation on releasing Google from commitments after the tech firm announced it was abandoning plans to prompt users to decide if they want to block third party cookies from Chrome, its web browser.

The CMA commitments were put in place to ensure that Google’s Privacy Sandbox was developed in a way that benefits consumers. Without the CMA’s oversight, Google’s original plan to deprecate third-party cookies could have weakened competition in the digital advertising sector – an industry worth billions to the UK economy – harming consumers who ultimately pay for the cost of online advertising.

The commitments protected competition by ensuring that Google designed and developed the Privacy Sandbox in a way that did not favour its own ad-tech services over those of its competitors.

Seeing as the privacy sandbox plans were halted and third party cookies are still allowed across Chrome, the CMA believes that these commitments are no longer necessary and is now consulting before it takes a decision on whether to release them later this year.

Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox was conceptualised to target concerns over the data privacy and security of third party cookies, which are used by advertisers to target consumers. It aimed to replace cookies with broader, semi-anonymous user groups.

Recommended reading

• Google Abandons Plan to Block Third-Party Cookies
• Google to Release New Privacy Tools to Remove Personal Info From Search
• Third-Party Cookie Crumbles as Google Chrome Tests Phase Out

While this approach aimed to balance privacy with effective advertising, it faced criticism from privacy advocates, advertisers, and regulators alike. This ultimately drove Google to abandon these efforts and keep third party cookies.

However, Google has said that it still has plans to transform the data tracking that goes into targeted advertising, aiming to give users an “informed choice that applies across their web browsing,” Google Vice President Anthony Chavez said in a blog post when Google changed its plans back in Jul 2024.