Your entire post seems to imply that there is no way for ad networks to target advertisements without tracking users from site to site.
However, if someone is visiting a site about, say, cats, it is still possible to show them ads for pet-care with no tracking required. If they then visit a site about data structure, then you show them ads about, say, data structure text-books, but the advertiser can't reliably detect that they are the same person who just visited the site about cats, so can't show them another pet care ad.
Tracking users might slightly improve the targeting of ads, but not by much - saying it will make companies in the EU unprofitable is extreme hyperbole.
Of course, the draft directive may not actually be effective, especially as IPv6 rolls out and NAT becomes progressively less necessary and common. IPv6 address + browser header fingerprinting could easily be almost as accurate as cookies to track users, and it doesn't require storing any information.
However, if someone is visiting a site about, say, cats, it is still possible to show them ads for pet-care with no tracking required. If they then visit a site about data structure, then you show them ads about, say, data structure text-books, but the advertiser can't reliably detect that they are the same person who just visited the site about cats, so can't show them another pet care ad.
Tracking users might slightly improve the targeting of ads, but not by much - saying it will make companies in the EU unprofitable is extreme hyperbole.
Of course, the draft directive may not actually be effective, especially as IPv6 rolls out and NAT becomes progressively less necessary and common. IPv6 address + browser header fingerprinting could easily be almost as accurate as cookies to track users, and it doesn't require storing any information.