CCPA vs GDPR: Key Differences and How to Comply With Both

Two Laws, Different Approaches, One Goal

The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California's Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA, as amended by CPRA) are the two most influential privacy laws in the world. If your website has visitors from both Europe and California — and most do — you need to comply with both.

While they share the goal of protecting personal data, they differ significantly in approach. Understanding these differences is key to building a compliance strategy that covers both.

Consent Model: Opt-In vs Opt-Out

This is the biggest difference:

• GDPR: Opt-in — You must get explicit consent before collecting any personal data through non-essential cookies. No consent = no tracking. Period.
• CCPA: Opt-out — You can collect data by default, but must provide a clear "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link. Users opt out after the fact.

In practice, if you build for GDPR (the stricter standard), you automatically cover CCPA as well. But you still need to show the right interface to the right visitors.

Who Is Covered?

Aspect	GDPR	CCPA
Scope	Any website processing data of EU/EEA residents	Businesses meeting revenue/data thresholds with California consumers
Business size	Applies to all, regardless of size	$25M+ revenue, 100K+ consumers' data, or 50%+ revenue from data sales
Data covered	All personal data (broad definition)	Personal information (also broad, includes household data)
Maximum fine	Up to 20M EUR or 4% global revenue	$2,500 per violation, $7,500 per intentional violation

Cookie-Specific Requirements

Under GDPR:

• Show a consent banner before any non-essential cookies are set
• Provide granular accept/reject options by category
• Block all tracking scripts until consent is given
• Keep a consent audit log
• Allow easy withdrawal of consent

Under CCPA:

• Display a "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link
• Honour Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signals
• Provide a clear privacy policy listing data categories collected
• Allow consumers to request data deletion

How LegalBanner Handles Both

LegalBanner automatically detects the visitor's location and applies the correct compliance framework:

• EU/UK visitors see a full GDPR consent banner with granular category controls and script blocking.
• California visitors see a CCPA-compliant notice with the required opt-out link and GPC signal support.
• Other regions can be configured with custom rules or shown a simplified notice.

All from the same script tag. No geo-targeting configuration needed — it's automatic.

The Bottom Line

If you serve a global audience, you don't get to choose between GDPR and CCPA — you need both. The good news is that a single, well-implemented consent management platform can handle everything. LegalBanner does exactly that, with zero configuration required on your end.