Web TCF Disclosures and Lifecycle

Last updated: October 4, 2026

The direct Web CMP implements the TCF disclosure and lifecycle paths described here. Test your actual property, selected vendors, languages and production installation before making a compliance claim. Source capability, a successful deployment and Google certification are different milestones.

TCF 2.4 disclosure changes

The Web disclosure implementation uses the current official vendor-list content, including:

• the standard explanation that Features are processing methods used for purposes for which the visitor has a choice;
• illustrations supplied for each Feature;
• the current name and wording for Special Feature 2.

Feature disclosures are reachable from the relevant purpose and vendor detail views. Do not replace official wording with invented text or add illustrations that the official data does not provide. A missing required vendor-list dependency leaves optional consent off and shows an error; successful recovery must restore the normal preference controls.

The IAB notice sets October 23, 2026 as the Web implementation deadline. Native SDK and connected-TV releases have their own qualification; this Web guide does not claim their completion. See the IAB policies and IAB technical specifications for the normative requirements.

Choice and API behavior

Install the synchronous startup block before dependent tags and TCF consumers. During loading, ping may report stub; a stub is not loaded consent. Use addEventListener to observe current and subsequent TCData. A fresh visible banner reports cmpuishown; restored valid choices report tcloaded; a completed user choice reports useractioncomplete. Closing an unsaved draft does not create a completed choice.

Special Feature opt-ins are global TCF choices. Repeated controls in partner and purpose details share the same state and explicitly apply to all partners using that Special Feature. They do not promise an unrepresentable per-vendor Special Feature opt-in.

The internal CMP implementation version is 3 for Web package 1.5.29. It changes for material consent/API/disclosure releases and is separate from TCF specification 2.4, API version 2, TC String version 2 and policy version 5. An older saved choice that cannot meet the current validation contract is renewed with optional consent off until a fresh choice.

When Consent Mode is enabled, the API supplies enableAdvertiserConsentMode on TCData. Analytics is a separate explicit preference and is not inferred from the advertising-measurement purpose. Full direct Consent Mode off disables advertiser inference as described in the mode-switching guide.

Property verification

Check first and second layers, purpose and vendor controls, legal bases, publisher restrictions, special features and the links/disclosures shown for your selected vendors. Verify fresh acceptance, mixed choices, Analytics-only withdrawal, rejection, reload and reopening preferences. Confirm selected languages, correctly labelled fallback text, right-to-left layouts and readable long text; a language catalog alone is not translation approval.

The delivered official GVL language controls both TCF UI layers and the encoded consent language. English official-text fallback therefore presents an English TCF interface, even when the requested language has a product catalog. The 60 product catalogs are not a claim of 60 official TCF translations; native-speaker qualification of the expanded supplemental copy remains pending. See the localization workflow.

Keep the primary worldwide-TCF demonstration separate from ordinary visitor-based routing. A regional no-banner review scenario needs its own clearly identified configuration. See TCF API validation and Google Consent Mode validation.