An e-shop established in Slovakia opens a Czech version, or a Czech company launches a website for Slovak customers. The question then arises whether cookies call for two different banners, two sets of wording and two sets of rules. The answer is simpler than it might appear: both countries build on the same European directive on privacy and electronic communications, and both now require prior consent. The differences lie in the wording, in the history, and in what is easily overlooked on a cross-border website.
Slovakia: consent under the GDPR
The Slovak Electronic Communications Act, in force since 1 February 2022, frames the rule as follows:
Any person who stores information, or gains access to information stored, in a user’s terminal equipment is entitled to do so only if the user has given demonstrable consent meeting the requirements under a separate regulation. […]
— Section 109(8) of Act No. 452/2021 Coll. (unofficial English translation)
The separate regulation is the GDPR, so consent to cookies must meet the same requirements as any other consent under the Regulation: freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. Without consent, only technical storage whose sole purpose is the transmission of a communication is permitted, or storage strictly necessary in order to provide a service explicitly requested by the user, such as a shopping basket.
The Czech Republic: consent only since 2022
The Czech Electronic Communications Act long rested on the opposite principle. Until 31 December 2021 it required the operator only to provide demonstrable prior information about the scope and purpose of the processing and to offer an opportunity to refuse it. Since 1 January 2022, Section 89(3) of Act No. 127/2005 Sb. has required demonstrable prior consent from subscribers or users to the scope and purpose of the processing. The exceptions have remained essentially the same as in Slovakia: technical storage solely for the transmission of a communication, and storage necessary in order to provide a service explicitly requested by the user.
A Czech banner set up before 2022 on the logic of “we inform you, and anyone who objects may refuse” therefore no longer complies with the law. When taking over an older Czech website, it is worth checking whether measurement and marketing scripts fire on page load.
What is the same and what differs
The common foundation is also shaped by the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU on Article 5(3) of Directive 2002/58/EC, from which both regimes derive. In Planet49 (C-673/17) the Court held that a pre-ticked box is not valid consent, that the rules apply regardless of whether personal data are involved, and that the visitor must be told how long the cookies will operate and about access by third parties. Those conclusions apply equally to Slovak and Czech websites.
The difference lies mainly in the drafting. The Slovak text refers to the requirements for consent under the GDPR, while the Czech text speaks expressly of prior consent to the scope and purpose of the processing. The exception for necessary storage is worded as “strictly necessary” in Slovakia and “necessary” in the Czech Republic. With a banner configured under the GDPR, with refusal given equal prominence and scripts tied to consent, those differences do not, as a rule, call for a different technical solution. Where cookies are used to process personal data, the data protection authority also supervises that processing.
What to bear in mind for a website serving both countries
- Language. Consent must be informed (Article 4(11) of the GDPR) and information about the processing must be provided in an intelligible form, using clear and plain language (Article 12(1) of the GDPR). The banner and the cookie policy therefore belong in the language of the relevant version of the site, not in Slovak alone.
- Same categories, same behaviour. If the Czech and Slovak versions use the same tools, they should have the same consent categories. Divergent configuration of language versions is a common source of errors, where a script is blocked on one version and not on the other.
- Separate domains. Where the website runs on .sk and .cz domains, consent is as a rule stored separately for each domain. A visitor moving from one version to the other must be able to decide again, and consent records must be kept for both.
- Withdrawal. The ability to withdraw consent must be equally accessible on both versions (Article 7(3) of the GDPR).
How to document consent and when to refresh it is examined in consent to cookies: proof and withdrawal; why a banner without an option to refuse does not stand up is explained in the “accept or leave” cookie banner.
How we can help
Because we are admitted to both the Slovak and the Czech bar, we prepare the banner, the wording and the cookie policy for both language versions at once, without a second lawyer. We measure how the site actually behaves and check it after deployment through cookies and the legal configuration of a website. We align how customers in both countries are informed about the processing of their data through the GDPR and personal data protection.
This article provides general legal information as at 12 September 2026. It does not constitute legal services or advice on your specific matter. Laws change and the details of your situation may differ. Check the appropriate course of action or contact us before making a decision.
