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tfeacademy.com

UK compliance audit.

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Compliance Score

How the score was calculated

Starting score: 100
1 high finding: −15
1 medium finding: −5
1 medium warning: −3
Final score: 77

AI Analysis

Your website's consent banner contains several dark patterns—including color manipulation, size differences, and pre-selected checkboxes—that make it harder for visitors to refuse cookies than to accept them, which breaches UK GDPR requirements. The good news is that your actual cookie handling works correctly: no non-essential cookies fire before consent, users can reject them, and tracking stops entirely when they do. However, there's a gap between what the banner *says* (the content itself is not compliant) and what it *does* (the technical enforcement is sound), which suggests the banner was installed but not fully aligned with your legal obligations. You'll need to fix the banner's appearance and wording to match the fair consent mechanism that's already in place technically.

Fix these first

1 priority

01
HIGHcheck_dark_patterns_vision
Dark patterns detected (severity: high): Color manipulation, Size difference, Visual hierarchy, Asymmetric choices, Pre-selected checkboxes

Report Details

Playbook: UK Cookie Compliance
Domain: tfeacademy.com
Started At: 23 Oct 2026, 19:45
Duration: 1m 35s
Total Checks: 43
Report ID: u01XZ_8nKLO2

Check Results

Data Capture

3 checks All passed

capture_html_initial

INFO

Captured HTML (189670 bytes) from https://www.tfeacademy.com/tfe-start

Captured HTML:

View rendered

screenshot_initial

INFO

Screenshot captured

Screenshot Evidence:

Click to view full size

capture_cookies_initial

INFO

Captured 1 cookies

Captured Cookies:

View full list

Pre-Consent Cookies

2 checks All passed

check_initial_cookies

CRITICAL

No non-essential cookies found

PECR Regulation 6(1)

Cookies (except strictly necessary) require user consent BEFORE being set

View guidance

check_pre_consent_trackers

INFO

No known trackers fired before consent (30 total requests captured during page load).

PECR Regulation 6(1) & UK GDPR Article 6

Loading third-party trackers (Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, etc.) before consent is a PECR violation regardless of whether they set cookies

View guidance

Cookie Consent Banner

6 checks All passed

find_banner

INFO

Found consent banner via vision (height: 482px)

PECR Regulation 6(2)

Clear and comprehensive information must be provided about cookie use

View guidance

find_cookie_banner

INFO

Cookie consent banner detected on page

verify_banner_visible

INFO

Element visibility is true as expected

screenshot_banner

INFO

Screenshot captured

Screenshot Evidence:

Click to view full size

extract_banner_text

INFO

Extracted 728 words

check_banner_content

LOW

Cookie banner provides sufficient information to users about cookie usage

PECR Regulation 6(2)(a)

Cookie notice must provide clear, comprehensive information about purposes

View guidance

Cookie Controls

4 checks All passed

find_reject_button_semantic

INFO

Found reject button: <button#CybotCookiebotDialogBodyButtonDecline.CybotCookiebotDialogBodyButton> text='Deny'

find_accept_button_semantic

INFO

Found accept button: <button#CybotCookiebotDialogBodyLevelButtonLevelOptinAllowAll.CybotCookiebotDialogBodyButton> text='Allow all'

find_reject_button_any

CRITICAL

Reject/decline cookies button found - users can easily refuse consent

find_accept_button_any

INFO

Accept cookies button found

Dark Pattern Detection

1 check All passed

compare_button_prominence

HIGH

Buttons have similar prominence

EDPB Guidelines 03/2022 on Dark Patterns

Reject option must have equal prominence to accept - asymmetric design is a deceptive pattern

View guidance

AI Dark Pattern Analysis

2 checks1 failed

check_dark_patterns_vision

HIGH-15

Dark patterns detected (severity: high): Color manipulation, Size difference, Visual hierarchy, Asymmetric choices, Pre-selected checkboxes

Color manipulation detected: Color manipulation. Button colors are used to make the accept option more attractive while making reject appear inactive or undesirable. This visual manipulation violates the requirement for freely given consent.

Size disparity detected: Size difference. The accept button is significantly larger than the reject button, drawing user attention toward acceptance. Equal button sizing is required for fair presentation of consent choices.

Dark pattern detected: Visual hierarchy. This design element may manipulate users into accepting cookies they would otherwise decline, violating GDPR's requirement for freely given, informed consent.

Visual asymmetry detected: Asymmetric choices. The accept button is designed to be more visually prominent than the reject button (larger, brighter, or more colorful). GDPR requires that consent choices be presented equally, without visually steering users toward acceptance.

Dark pattern detected: Pre-selected checkboxes. This design element may manipulate users into accepting cookies they would otherwise decline, violating GDPR's requirement for freely given, informed consent.

EDPB Guidelines 03/2022 on Dark Patterns

Visual deceptive patterns including color manipulation and hidden controls are prohibited

View guidance

check_deceptive_buttons

HIGH

Button labels are clear and not deceptive

EDPB Guidelines 03/2022 on Dark Patterns

Button labels must accurately reflect their function without ambiguity or deception

View guidance

AI Content Analysis

3 checks1 failed

check_banner_quality_llm

MEDIUM-5

Banner content is not GDPR compliant

Cookie banner does not meet GDPR compliance requirements

No link to cookie policy or detailed information provided

Unclear what "Details" and "About" buttons do (assumed to be links but not labeled as such)

"Deny" button is ambiguous (does it reject all or just selected categories?)

No explicit "Reject all" option (only "Deny" which may confuse users)

Categories listed (Necessary

Preferences

Statistics

Marketing) lack explanation of what each includes

Sharing data with third parties is mentioned but no way to see which partners or opt-out of specific third parties in banner

Pre-selected consent categories are unclear from the text provided

Banner Text Analyzed:

"Consent Details About This website uses cookies We use cookies for content, service improvement, ads personalisation, to provide social media features, and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. Consent Selection Necessary Preferences Statistics Marketing Deny Allow sel..."

PECR Regulation 6(2)(a)

Cookie notices must provide clear, comprehensive information about purposes

View guidance

check_language_consistency

LOW

Banner language (en) matches page language

PECR Regulation 6(2)(a)

Information must be provided in a language users can understand

check_cookie_purposes

MEDIUM

No cookies available for purpose matching

PECR Regulation 6(2)(a)

All cookies used must be disclosed and explained in the notice

View guidance

AI Accessibility Analysis

1 check

check_visual_accessibility

MEDIUM-3

Accessibility score: 65/100

Equality Act 2010

Cookie banners must be accessible to users with disabilities including visual impairments

View guidance

Consent Verification

7 checks All passed

click_reject_button

INFO

Clicked element <button#CybotCookiebotDialogBodyButtonDecline.CybotCookiebotDialogBodyButton> text='Deny'

wait_after_reject

INFO

Waited 2000ms

check_cookies_after_reject

CRITICAL

No non-essential cookies found

UK GDPR Article 7(3), PECR Regulation 6

When a visitor refuses or withdraws consent, non-essential cookies must not be set or kept

View guidance

verify_cookies_cleared

CRITICAL

All non-essential cookies cleared after user rejected consent

UK GDPR Article 7(3)

Withdrawal of consent must be as easy as giving it; cookies must be deleted upon rejection

View guidance

verify_banner_dismissed

LOW

Element visibility is false as expected

screenshot_after_reject

INFO

Screenshot captured

Screenshot Evidence:

Click to view full size

check_trackers_after_reject

CRITICAL

No tracking after the visitor rejected cookies

PECR Regulation 6 & UK GDPR Article 7(3)

Once a visitor refuses, non-essential tracking must not run — with or without cookies

View guidance

Accessibility

1 check All passed

wcag_aa_scan

HIGH

No accessibility violations found (WCAG AA)

Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018, Equality Act 2010

UK websites must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards; failure may constitute disability discrimination

View guidance

Evidence Collection

2 checks All passed

capture_html_after_reject

INFO

Captured HTML (253789 bytes) from https://www.tfeacademy.com/tfe-start

Captured HTML:

View rendered

capture_cookies_after_reject

INFO

Captured 2 cookies

Captured Cookies:

View full list

Report Generation

2 checks All passed

generate_summary

INFO

AI summary generated successfully

generate_pdf

INFO

PDF report generated: https://smesolutions.uk/artifacts/artifacts/e5e8f2e1-1a74-491c-873b-455076d0f66d/report.pdf

Full Compliance Report

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