Movement for an Open Web (MOW) has lodged a complaint with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority against the W3C's proposal to eliminate third-party cookies, arguing it favors Google and harms smaller web publishers. MOW claims that the W3C's stance undermines competition in the web advertising market and violates antitrust obligations, while contending that third-party cookies are not inherently harmful but can be misused by bad actors.

France's data protection authority has fined Google €325 million and SHEIN €150 million for violating cookie policies by dropping trackers without user consent. Google’s practices led to the creation of millions of accounts under misleading conditions, while SHEIN failed to properly inform users about its cookie usage and continued tracking despite opt-out requests. Both companies plan to appeal the fines.

Google has decided not to proceed with its plans to remove third-party cookies from Chrome, citing the advertising industry's improved approach to privacy. Despite abandoning the feature that would prompt users to disable these cookies, Google will continue to enhance privacy features in Chrome, including updates to Incognito Mode.