France may remove Apple's iOS tracking protection due to competition law
iOS tracking transparency lets users prevent tracking across apps. After Germany's Federal Cartel Office, Paris competition authorities are raising concerns.
Apple could have to switch off its iOS tracking protection in France.
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Following the Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) in Bonn, the Autorité de la concurrence in Paris, France's national competition authority, now also wants to take action against Apple's app tracking protection. Advertising groups had previously complained to the authority because Apple has made it difficult for them to track users across iOS applications since 2021. According to the news agency Reuters, Apple will probably have to pay a fine in France. This is according to informed sources.
The reason: the Paris competition authorities were already concerned in an initial assessment two years ago that Apple was "abusing its dominant position" with the so-called App Tracking Transparency (ATT), in which "discriminatory, non-objective and non-transparent conditions for the use of user data for advertising purposes" had been implemented.
Apple: Not favoring ourselves
It is unclear how high the potential fine could be. However, French competition law is a sharp sword that can theoretically take up to 10 percent of global annual turnover. The decision was already expected, but the competition authorities are now showing a more far-reaching inclination to impose a fine this spring. However, the Autorité de la concurrence initially declined to comment on this.
In addition to the fine, Apple could also be obliged to discontinue ATT in France. This would be the first real non-compete obligation against the technology. Apple itself always emphasizes that it does not favor its advertising services and sets a higher privacy bar than its developers. French data protection experts have also praised ATT. The competition authorities apparently do not share this view and see the situation similarly to four complainants: a total of four industry lobby organizations from the advertising sector had already initiated competition proceedings against Apple in 2020.
Federal Cartel Office also against Apple
A similar investigation into ATT is underway in Germany, but here by the Federal Cartel Office. The main reason for Bonn's concerns is that the "strict requirements" of the ATT system only apply to other app providers, but not to Apple itself.
"In the Bundeskartellamt's preliminary view, this could constitute a violation of the special abuse provisions for large digital companies (Section 19a (2) GWG [Act against Restraints of Competition]) as well as the general abuse provisions of Article 102 TFEU [Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union]," the authority stated. In this case, Apple also stated that it sets higher standards for itself than for third-party developers. Apple does this "by giving users the opportunity to decide whether they want personalized advertising at all".
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