Brussels, Belgium - 9th January 2026: IAB Europe welcomes the ruling of the Belgian Market Court (part of the Brussels Court of Appeal) in relation to its appeal against the January 2023 decision by the Belgian Data Protection Authority (APD), which had validated IAB Europe’s action plan and triggered a 6-month timeframe for its implementation.
Because several measures proposed in the action plan stemmed from the APD’s assumption that IAB Europe acted not only as a joint controller for the processing of TC Strings but also for subsequent data processing - which was overturned by the Market Court’s prior ruling of 14 May 2025 - IAB Europe challenged the scope of the validation, which required implementation of modifications to the TCF outside the perimeter of its controllership.
The Market Court has now agreed with IAB Europe, finding that the APD’s decision to validate the action plan was legally flawed and annulling it accordingly. As a result, the APD will now have to take a new decision reflecting the narrower scope of IAB Europe’s joint controllership, as determined by both the European Court of Justice and the Market Court itself.
In addition, the Market Court found that the APD had violated IAB Europe’s right to be heard by adopting its decision of January 2023 without permitting IAB Europe to take position on it.
“We welcome this ruling by the Market Court and its clear confirmation of IAB Europe’s limited role in the TCF”, said Townsend Feehan, IAB Europe’s CEO. “It shows that several orders of the APD’s decision of February 2022 went too far, and that the scope of the decision of January 2023 was also too broad as a result. The ruling provides an opportunity for a reset, and we look forward to an exchange with the APD on the action plan as well as on the future evolution of the TCF, for the benefit of both users and TCF participants.”
Finally, the complainants who initiated the proceedings against the TCF had also appealed the APD’s decision to validate the action plan, arguing that they should have been involved in the procedure. The Market Court rejected these claims as unfounded.
An updated FAQ on the case may be consulted on IAB Europe's website here. IAB Europe will continue to keep the market updated on the case as the matter returns to the APD for further proceedings.
