Nordic Media Giant Schibsted switches to “Pay or Okay” – complaint filed!

Summary

The Norwegian Consumer Council and privacy advocacy group noyb filed a joint complaint with Norway's Data Protection Authority against media publisher Schibsted for implementing a 'Pay or Okay' system that forces users to either accept tracking for personalized ads or pay a premium to opt out. The practice, which generates artificial 99% consent rates despite only 0.16–7% of users genuinely wanting tracking, violates GDPR's requirement for freely given consent and follows similar complaints in Sweden where 56 cases have been filed. The complaint seeks to declare the business practice illegal and potentially impose a fine on Schibsted.

Full text

Forced Consent & Consent Bypass / 03 June 2026 Today, the Norwegian Consumer Council (Forbrukerrådet) and noyb have filed a complaint against the Norwegian news publisher Schibsted for implementing a “Pay or Okay” system across its products. Schibsted is one of the largest news publishers in the Nordics and owns well-known brands such as TV4, Aftenposten E24 and VG. The company’s introduction of “Pay or Okay” sets a dangerous precedent for free consent across the Nordic countries, which follows the wide-spread trend of websites to charge a “fee” to reject being tracked online. Background. In recent years, more and more websites have introduced “Pay or Okay” systems in an attempt to forcibly increase their consent rates for personalised ad tracking far beyond the actual “freely given” consent foreseen by law. This trend was originally started by news media companies in German speaking countries, but in the meantime even Meta adopted it for Instagram and Facebook in 2023. Essentially, the practice forces consumers to choose between accepting being tracked for personalised advertising and paying a hefty premium to reject it. Except for a few websites in Denmark, “Pay or Okay” had been rare in the Nordics until this year. Then, in March, the Swedish subsidiary of the Norwegian media publisher Schibsted introduced it on all of their websites, including major newspapers such as Aftonbladet and even the TV guide. Now they’ve launched the same business practice in Norway, where Schibsted owns some of the biggest news outlets.Finn Myrstad, Director of digital policy at the Norwegian Consumer Council: “Privacy is a fundamental right — not a premium option. This is about more than ads for shoes or football gear. This type of tracking makes it possible to build highly detailed profiles of us: how we think, behave, and can be influenced when we are at our most vulnerable.”North Korean Consent Rates. It is well known that so-called “consent rates” skyrocket when websites start using “Pay or Okay”. Industry papers show that such systems consistently lead to consent rates of about 99% – while, according to various studies, only between 0.16% and 7% of people want to be tracked or have their data used for personalised advertising. If more than 90% of users get the opposite of what they genuinely want, we have everything but genuine consent as required by the GDPR. Schibsted even confirmed this themselves: “Studies show that if you allow this [to reject consent; Ed. Note] without demanding any form of payment in return, a great many users will decline”, Fredric Karén, Schibsted Sweden’s Executive Vice President, said in an interview with SVT.Max Schrems: “The use of ‘Pay or Okay’ leads to a consent rate beyond 99%, despite the fact that only a small number of people wants to be tracked online. In reality, ‘Pay or Okay’ leads to nothing but a North Korean consent rate.”Complaint filed in Norway. The Swedish IMY has already received at least 56 complaints against Schibsted since they introduced “Pay or Okay” in Sweden. So, it’s clear that this is an issue that people in the Nordics deeply care about. noyb has now partnered with the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) to file a joint complaint with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority. We request the DPA to assess the legality of “Pay or Okay” and to declare the business practice illegal. Since this clearly is a systemic practice employed by Schibsted, we also suggest that the DPA issue a fine.Joakim Söderberg, data protection lawyer at noyb: “Profiteering from fundamental rights is not a legitimate business model in Europe. We're hoping that the Norwegian DPA sees things our way, and that Schibsted abandons this unpopular and unlawful scheme.”

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