European regulations overview and guidance

Google consent management requirements for serving ads in the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland (for CMPs)

Next: Google consent management requirements for serving ads in the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland (for publishers)

To comply with the EU User Consent Policy, partners using our publisher products—Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob—are required to use a consent management platform (CMP) that has been certified by Google and integrates with the IAB's Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) when serving personalized ads to users in the following regions:

EEA and UK: As of 16 January 2024, a certified CMP integrated with the TCF is required when serving personalized ads to users in the EEA and UK.
Switzerland: As of 31 July 2024, a certified CMP integrated with the TCF is required when serving personalized ads to users in Switzerland.

Review the following information to understand these requirements.

Consent requirements for CMPs

Certified CMPs are assessed by Google against Google certification criteria focused on TCF compliance. If publishers using the TCF also work with ad technology providers that are not registered with the TCF, Google supports that today—through our Additional Consent specification—and will continue to do so. Our CMP assessments check that CMPs supporting our Additional Consent specification can do so correctly. Successful review of a CMP against the Google certification criteria will make that CMP available in our list of certified CMPs. Google does not check CMPs for full compliance with the TCF or applicable privacy laws.

Publishers and developers using Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob who serve ads to users in the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK, and/or Switzerland are required to use a certified CMP that integrates with the TCF when serving ads to users in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland.

In 2020, we integrated our ads systems with the TCF. You can learn more about IAB TCF and Ad Manager's integration in our publisher integration help center article. The IAB TCF requirement is a continuation of our 2020 commitment to support industry efforts aimed at managing user transparency and consent through a standardized framework.

CMP certification process

CMPs can register their interest with Google to be certified and we will contact you to explain the next steps.

Register your interest: Submit the "Google Consent Management Requirements CMP Certification Intake" form to register your interest in certification.

IAB has introduced a new CMP check related to their requirement for CMPs to provide information about how the TC string is stored and for how long (see Policy Check 30 in the IAB Policies & Technical Specifications Controls Catalogue). We will begin performing this check as part of our CMP Certification starting October 4, 2024 in line with IAB’s timeline.

Recertification

CMPs are required to recertify at least every twelve months and will receive an email reminder before this deadline. CMPs may also be invited to recertify earlier if there are changes to the CMP certification criteria.

CMPs should follow the instructions in the email reminder to be recertified.

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