IAB Europe

IAB Europe

IAB Europe is the trade association for digital advertising in Europe. The IAB Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF) script manages vendor consent records for GDPR compliance across participating advertising technology companies.

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Overview

IAB Europe is the trade association for digital advertising in Europe. The IAB Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF) provides a standardized protocol for communicating user consent choices to participating advertising technology vendors. The TCF script (CMP stub) is the technical implementation of this framework.

What This Script Does

  • Implements the __tcfapi JavaScript API that CMPs and ad tech vendors call to read and write consent signals
  • Stores the TC String (Transparency & Consent string) encoding the user's consent choices for each TCF-registered vendor and purpose
  • Sets the euconsent-v2 cookie containing the encoded TC String
  • Provides the addEventListener and getTCData commands that ad scripts use to check whether they have consent before processing data
  • Loads as a "stub" script that makes the __tcfapi available immediately, before the full CMP interface loads

Consent & Compliance

  • Consent category: Essential
  • GDPR/ePrivacy: The TCF stub is itself part of the consent management infrastructure. It does not collect user data or perform tracking — it stores and communicates the user's consent decisions. It is essential for GDPR compliance when using TCF-participating ad tech vendors.
  • CCPA: TCF is primarily a GDPR/ePrivacy framework. Some CMPs extend it for CCPA via the US Privacy String (usprivacy).

Should You Block This Without Consent?

No. The IAB TCF script is consent infrastructure — it manages and communicates consent decisions to other scripts. Blocking it would prevent your consent management platform from functioning correctly and would break consent enforcement for all TCF-participating vendors.

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Consent Categories

Essential

Also Known As

IAB Europe TCFtransparency consent frameworkIAB TCF 2.0GDPR consent frameworkIAB Europe GDPRTCF vendor list

Industries

Marketing and AdvertisingBusiness and Consumer Services

Tracked Domains (1)

consensu.orgConsent

Frequently Asked Questions

Does IAB Europe require cookie consent?

No, not in the traditional sense. IAB Europe's TCF script is itself the consent management mechanism — it records and communicates GDPR vendor consent decisions across participating ad tech vendors. The TCF script is essential infrastructure for compliance and does not itself require a separate consent gate.

What does the IAB Europe TCF script do on a website?

The IAB TCF script stores a consent string in a cookie (typically 'euconsent-v2') that encodes which vendors a user has consented to. This string is read by participating ad tech vendors to gate their own data processing. The cookie is typically set for 13 months on the publisher's domain.

How does ConsentStack interact with IAB Europe TCF?

ConsentStack classifies the IAB Europe TCF script as essential infrastructure. It is not blocked on consent denial since it is the mechanism that records consent decisions. ConsentStack surfaces TCF as part of your consent audit so you understand which vendors operate under the TCF framework on your site.

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Manage consent for IAB Europe

ConsentStack automatically detects and manages IAB Europe trackers so your site stays compliant with global privacy regulations.

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