Cookie banner examples: compliant, borderline, and plain illegal

Most cookie banners you meet in a day are not compliant, and their owners rarely know it. The difference is not aesthetic: it is a handful of precise, checkable properties. Here are cookie banner examples across the spectrum, from what regulators expect to what they fine.

Example 1: the compliant banner

Two buttons of equal weight, "Accept" and "Refuse", visible at the first level. A link to the preference center for per-category choices. A short explanation of the purposes. Behind the scenes, the property that no design screenshot can show: no non-essential tracker fires until a choice is made, and each decision lands in a timestamped record. After the choice, a small floating icon lets the visitor change their mind at any time.

• Refusing is one click, exactly like accepting.
• Categories can be chosen separately (analytics yes, advertising no).
• Blocking is real: the Network tab stays silent before consent.
• The choice is revocable at any time and provable afterwards.

Example 2: the borderline patterns

• "Accept" versus "Manage preferences": refusing exists, but costs three clicks through a settings maze. Several European regulators have fined exactly this asymmetry.
• The ghost refuse button: gray text on gray background next to a bright blue "Accept all". Technically present, visually engineered to fail.
• The wall of toggles: dozens of vendor switches with no "refuse all", betting on fatigue.
• Nagging: the banner returns on every page until the visitor gives in. Consent given to make a popup stop is not freely given.

Example 3: the plainly illegal ones

• The decorative banner: displays nicely while Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel already fired. The most common violation on the web.
• The cookie wall: accept everything or leave, with no alternative. Invalid consent under GDPR and Law 25 alike.
• Pre-checked boxes: consent must be an action, not an omission; pre-ticked categories are void.
• The no-banner site running analytics and ad trackers with nothing at all.

Building a compliant one

A cookie banner generator worth the name handles the invisible parts, which are the ones that matter: real blocking before consent, per-category choices, Google Consent Mode v2 signals, and a consent record for proof. The visible design (colors, position, copy) should be yours; Consorm's editor covers both halves, and its templates start from the compliant example above rather than the borderline ones.