Still requires that they inform the user, with the Cookie Notice soft-consent (or whatever the new ePrivacy directive will replace that with soon).
If the Cookie does not track PII, then you don't need such a banner. Cookies used for logins are excluded as well. 99% of web publishers went completely over board with Cookie banners, because they did not understand the law.
It seems to me that if nobody can understand what the law actually covers, it's an exceptionally shitty law.