Pay-or-Okay / Consent-or-Pay Models
Pay-or-okay, also called consent-or-pay, is a business model offering only two routes: paid, advertising-free access, or consent to tracking and personalised advertising. There is no third, free option without tracking. Whether such models are compatible with the GDPR has not been settled. The European Data Protection Board issued an opinion on large online platforms in 2024; general guidelines covering all providers are still not available.
In practice
However the question of principle is answered one day, much of the outcome in practice turns on one point: granularity. Under Article 4(11) and Article 7 GDPR, consent is only valid if it is given for the specific purpose. A single switch next to the paid option, bundling analytics, marketing and personalisation, is therefore the weak spot. Technically that means separate toggles per purpose in the consent platform, with refusal as easy to reach as agreement. Before a broad rollout this needs a legal review, beforehand rather than after the first complaint. As a third option, contextual, non-personalised advertising is worth a look: it does not need this consent at all.