Consent or pay
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Due to the Data (Use and Access) Act coming into law on 19 June 2025, this guidance is under review and may be subject to change. The Plans for new and updated guidance page will tell you about which guidance will be updated and when this will happen.
Contents
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About this guidance
- What do you mean by consent or pay?
- Are “consent or pay” business models compliant with data protection law?
- Why have you produced this guidance?
- How are “consent or pay” models different from the “take it or leave it” approach?
- Who is this guidance for?
- How is this guidance structured?
- How should we use this guidance to demonstrate our compliance?
- What does the law say?
- What about other areas of law?
- Can we offer consent or pay models to children?
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Power imbalance
- What do you mean by “power imbalance”?
- Why is power imbalance relevant to “consent or pay”?
- How do we assess whether there is a clear power imbalance?
- What do you mean by our position in the market and how is it relevant to power imbalance?
- How do we consider our position in the market in our assessment of power imbalance?
- What do you mean by barriers to users switching and how might they affect our assessment of power imbalance?
- What if there’s a risk of a clear power imbalance?
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Appropriate fee
- Why is an appropriate fee relevant to “consent or pay”?
- What do you mean by an “appropriate fee”?
- Are pricing decisions about the core product or service the concern of data protection law?
- How do we assess whether the fee is appropriate?
- What methods can we use to assess whether the fee is appropriate?
- Can we charge for our products and services?
- What if the fee isn’t appropriate?
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Equivalence
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Privacy by design
- Why is privacy by design relevant to “consent or pay”?
- What do you mean by “privacy by design”?
- How should we approach privacy by design?
- How should we present the options to people?
- How should we design the “consent” option?
- How should we design the “pay” option?
- What if someone wants to leave the product or service?
- How should we integrate the right to withdraw consent?
- What is user testing and how can we do it?
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Case studies