It started as a legitimate complaint about user tracking but it was eventually lobbied into nothingness. Meaningful legislation would have hit the industry hard, at a time when IT/web was one of the few sectors holding on in the Great Crisis, so the EuroParliament got cold feet. They seem to have done a better job with the GDPR, which really should have come before the cookie stuff anyway; there is a chance the matter will be reviewed once the GDPR is fully implemented.