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Does the EU cookie law apply to an EU site that is hosted outside of the EU?

I have been reading up about this EU cookie law, and have also had in depth conversations with my girlfriend who is a solicitor/lawyer and with colleagues while building websites. While we are now working towards implementing a way to abide by the EU law, I have thought of something which no one really knows the answer to and has caused a few arguments.

It's my understanding that any website in the EU must abide by these cookie laws, which is understandable. However, say if I were to have a .co.uk or .eu domain name pointing to a website which is hosted in America for example, do I still need to abide by the EU laws even though the website is hosted outside of the EU? One person I have asked has said that because the domain name is .co.uk or .eu (a European TLD) then the website is still accountable under EU law. Another person I have asked has said because the actual website is held outside of the EU, it doesn't actually have to bother with this law.

mickburkejnr
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