To demonstrate how they see the legislation working, the ICO placed a banner at the top of their web site asking users to opt in to cookie usage. After they did this they saw a 90% decrease in traffic due to their analytics system not being able to track users that had not opted in.
Obviously this is not a desirable outcome and companies are left in the situation where they have to adhere to the law whilst minimising the impact on their business. They also need to make sure that the strategy they adopt is considered to comply, which is difficult as no clear guidelines have been set other than the above test.
One company that is leading the way in developing consent strategies is Maxymiser, leaders in the field of MVT, personalistion and customer experience optimisation. They have recently released a white paper that "offers advice for ecommerce businesses to best meet the demands of the EU cookie legislation without compromising online revenues." This paper is the result of many months of legal investigation into the directive and is definitely worth a read.
To accompany the white paper, Maxymiser are also offering access to a free Webinar that will provide the following insight:
• An explanation of the Directive and Scope of the Rule
• What consent really means, in a legal sense
• How to create a user interface design that demonstrates appropriate consent
Disclaimer - I work for Maxymiser but I really am quite interested in this legislation, hence the post.
UPDATE - the webinar has now taken place but you can view the recording.