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I'm fairly sure that the EU issued a directive and not regulation. The member state takes these directives and decide whether to (and how to) implement them into the statutory law of their country.

The rest of Europe looked at this directive and decided not to implement it 'ad pedem litterae'. You don't see any other countries with stupid little cookie notices plastered all over their websites.

The United Kingdom on the other hand, has a long history of misunderstanding the purpose of directives and implementing them without due consideration or manipulation.

Thus, the EU Cookie Law is misnamed. It is the UK Cookie Law.

It followed from the EU Directive 2002/58 on Privacy and Electronic Communications: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_on_Privacy_and_Electr...

Directive... Directive... Directive...

Don't blame Brussels. Blame the UK government.

More on regulation and directives here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8160808.stm