Exactly. There are places where the data is being collected without direct adverts or other visible signs being present (certain web analytics services for instance). This activity tracking gets married up to the other personal information the various companies hold about you.
> Personalised ads are beside the point.
I think they are an important part of the point, just not the whole point.
Being able to sell adverts for a bit more usually is what makes it worth a company's hassle implementing and maintaining their stalking infrastructure. Without that the online commercial stalkiness would die down an awful lot.
On the face of it some might think that this ruling achieves this, but it would not have that effect unless:
* other significant territories imposed the same sort of restrictions
* those restrictions were routines enforced
* and the enforcement (when transgressions are found) was sufficiently inconvenient to the companies