GDPR does not require consent. If you use consent, then it must be freely-given, but can often use a different legal basis when processing personal data.
The ePrivacy Directive requires consent for reading or writing from a terminal device. This includes anything with cookies, even if they're not personal data. While the ePD refers to GDPR for its definition of consent, it is a separate piece of legislation and many things that are true about GDPR are not true about ePD (such as being able to invoke Legitimate Interest instead of consent).
The ePrivacy Directive requires consent for reading or writing from a terminal device. This includes anything with cookies, even if they're not personal data. While the ePD refers to GDPR for its definition of consent, it is a separate piece of legislation and many things that are true about GDPR are not true about ePD (such as being able to invoke Legitimate Interest instead of consent).