Plus Der Spiegel ironically has a pop up offering “consent to tracking” or “pay to be ad-free”

If it's newspapers, the EU apparently has a carve out because newspapers feel good sand legislators read them when they were young

Yea that user is just wrong, is though this opinion from the privacy board (who knows if it matters at all) is that pay or consent should be illegal.

It is not. It is limited to the context of Large Online Platforms, as defined (iirc) in the DSA.

I believe the edpb will later publish guidelines on consent or pay for other companies, which will impact many news agencies.

Meta had $135 billion in revenue last year vs Der Spiegel's $0.3 billion.

Obviously, the largest offenders are going to be the top priority for limited enforcement resources.