The EU Commission formally withdrew the ePrivacy Regulation on February 11, 2026 (GetMailbird, 2026)—the privacy law that was supposed to replace the 24-year-old cookie directive. That’s not a footnote. It’s the starting gun for the Digital Omnibus package to absorb cookie consent rules directly into GDPR, potentially rewriting how every WordPress consent banner in Europe operates. If you’ve spent the last several years getting your WooCommerce store GDPR-compliant, the rules are about to shift under your feet again.
What the Digital Omnibus Package Actually Changes
The Digital Omnibus is the EU Commission’s initiative to streamline overlapping digital regulations—GDPR, the AI Act, the Data Act, and now cookie rules that were supposed to live in ePrivacy. Instead of two separate laws governing your consent banner, you’ll have one. That sounds simpler. It isn’t—yet.
Three specific changes are on the table that directly affect WordPress store owners:
First, some cookie categories could shift from opt-in to opt-out. Under the current framework, EU visitors must actively consent before you drop any non-essential cookie. The Omnibus proposes that certain categories—analytics, for example—could default to “on” unless the visitor opts out. That would fundamentally change how consent banners behave and could recover a significant portion of the 40-70% of EU visitors who currently reject cookies on consent banners (GDPR studies, 2023).
Second, browser-signal-based consent could replace individual website banners. Think Global Privacy Control (GPC), but EU-mandated. Instead of clicking through a consent popup on every site, visitors would set their privacy preferences once at the browser level. Your WordPress site would need to read and respect that signal automatically—no banner required.
Third, cookie regulation merges into GDPR enforcement. Right now, cookies fall under the ePrivacy Directive (a separate 2002 law). The Omnibus would consolidate this into GDPR, meaning cookie violations carry the same penalties: up to 4% of global annual turnover. With GDPR cumulative fines reaching €5.88 billion (Secure Privacy, 2026), that’s a credible threat.
Why This Is Happening Now
The ePrivacy Regulation spent nearly a decade stuck in legislative gridlock. EU lawmakers couldn’t agree on how to update cookie rules for the modern web. By withdrawing the proposal entirely on February 11, the Commission signaled that the Digital Omnibus is the path forward.
Meanwhile, enforcement is accelerating on the existing framework. €1.2 billion in GDPR fines were issued during 2024 alone (Secure Privacy, 2025). The GDPR procedural regulation entered into force on January 1, 2026, and will apply to new cross-border cases from April 2, 2027 (InsidePrivacy, 2026). This means faster, more coordinated enforcement across EU member states.
The EDPB has also selected transparency as its 2026 coordinated enforcement topic (EDPB, 2025). Translation: data protection authorities across Europe will jointly examine whether websites are being transparent about data collection. If your consent banner uses dark patterns or misleading language, 2026 is the year regulators come looking.
You may be interested in: Dark Patterns in Your Consent Banner Could Cost You 100 Million Euros
What This Means for Your WordPress Consent Banner
If you’re running Complianz, CookieYes, WPConsent, or any other WordPress consent plugin, the Omnibus creates three possible futures for your setup:
Scenario 1: Partial Opt-Out Model
Analytics and performance cookies become opt-out by default. Marketing and advertising cookies stay opt-in. Your consent banner simplifies—but it doesn’t disappear. You’d still need to request consent for ad tracking while automatically allowing analytics. Most WordPress consent plugins would need significant updates to handle this split model.
Scenario 2: Browser-Signal Consent
Visitors set preferences in Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. Your WordPress site reads the signal and adjusts data collection automatically. Consent banners become largely unnecessary. This is the most disruptive scenario—your consent plugin choice matters less than whether your tracking architecture can interpret browser signals.
Scenario 3: Status Quo With GDPR Teeth
Cookie rules move into GDPR but the consent model stays opt-in. The practical change is enforcement intensity, not consent mechanics. This is the least disruptive outcome—but with the GDPR procedural regulation now active, enforcement would be faster and more consistent than under the current fragmented ePrivacy framework.
The Tracking Architecture That Survives All Three Scenarios
Here’s the thing: the consent model changes how you ask permission. It doesn’t change the fundamental problem of how you collect data once permission is granted.
Whether the EU lands on opt-in, opt-out, or browser signals, your tracking still needs to actually capture the data accurately. And that’s where most WordPress stores are already failing. Ad blockers hide 31.5% of users globally (Statista, 2024). Safari’s ITP limits cookies to 7 days. Even with perfect consent, client-side tracking misses a third of the picture.
Server-side tracking solves this because data collection happens on your server, not in the visitor’s browser. First-party architecture—where your tracking runs on your own subdomain—works under any consent framework because you control the entire data processing chain. When consent is granted (however the EU defines “granted”), your server captures every event without browser interference.
Transmute Engine™ is a first-party Node.js server that runs on your subdomain. The inPIPE WordPress plugin captures events and sends them via API to your Transmute Engine server, which routes them simultaneously to GA4, Facebook CAPI, Google Ads, BigQuery, and more—all from your own domain. Because data flows through infrastructure you own, GDPR compliance is built into the architecture regardless of which consent model the Omnibus adopts.
What WordPress Store Owners Should Do Now
The Digital Omnibus is moving through EU Parliament in 2026, but final adoption and enforcement timelines are not yet fixed. That gives you a preparation window—not a reason to wait.
The EU AI Act obligations for high-risk AI systems take effect August 2, 2026 (ReedSmith, 2026), adding another layer of data governance requirements. The regulatory direction is clear: more accountability for how you collect, process, and use visitor data. Stores that build compliant data infrastructure now won’t need to scramble when the rules crystallize.
Key Takeaways
- The ePrivacy Regulation was withdrawn on February 11, 2026. Cookie consent rules will now be absorbed into GDPR through the Digital Omnibus package.
- Three possible consent models are on the table: partial opt-out, browser-signal consent, or enhanced opt-in under GDPR enforcement.
- Current consent banner setups may become obsolete if browser-signal consent is adopted—check whether your consent plugin vendor is preparing for Omnibus changes.
- First-party server-side tracking works under any consent model because data processing happens on infrastructure you control.
- EDPB’s 2026 transparency enforcement means dark patterns in consent banners are now an active enforcement priority.
Yes. The EU Commission withdrew the ePrivacy Regulation on February 11, 2026, and the Digital Omnibus package is moving through Parliament. This package could merge cookie regulation directly into GDPR, potentially shifting some cookie categories from opt-in to opt-out and introducing browser-signal-based consent mechanisms.
The ePrivacy Regulation was supposed to replace the 2002 cookie directive with updated rules. Its withdrawal means cookie consent will likely be absorbed into GDPR through the Digital Omnibus instead. Your current consent banner setup may need reconfiguration depending on whether the EU adopts opt-out models or browser-level signals like Global Privacy Control.
Focus on three things: adopt first-party data collection through server-side tracking (which works regardless of consent model), monitor your consent plugin vendor’s Omnibus readiness, and ensure your tracking architecture can adapt to browser-signal-based consent without manual reconfiguration. The stores best positioned are those whose data flows through infrastructure they control.
Your tracking architecture should work regardless of which consent model the EU adopts. See how Seresa builds future-proof data infrastructure for WordPress stores.
