[ryandrake]

First, cookie banners are associated with a totally different legislation, not GDPR, and they began appearing long before GDPR existed.

Second, the EU is not to blame for cookie banners. Companies doing tracking via cookies are to blame. They always have the option to not have a cookie banner--just don't do the things that require cookie banners. They deliberately choose to do these things, and then people complain about the banners.

[hrimfaxi]

In California, where everything can give you cancer, do people consider that a failure of the companies putting the notices on everything, or a failure of government?

[wat10000]

That's a failure of government because the law mandates the notice in so many places that it becomes pointless noise.

Cookie banners are not analogous. It's easy to make a web site that doesn't need cookie banners. It's actually easier to make a site that doesn't need them than to make one that does. Adding in the tracking that requires banner takes effort. But companies prefer to put in that effort and annoy their users so they can have that tracking. That's 100% on them, not on the government.