Apple Faces German Antitrust Probe Into App Tracking Transparency

According to a press release, Germany's Federal Cartel Office is looking into whether Apple's tracking rules are anti-competitive and self-serving.

Apple's tracking rules will be reviewed in order to determine if they are self-preferential to Apple or an impediment to third-party apps. The president of the Bundeskartellamt spoke.

"We welcome business models which use data carefully and give users choice as to how their data are used. A corporation like Apple which is in a position to unilaterally set rules for its ecosystem, in particular for its app store, should make pro-competitive rules. We have reason to doubt that this is the case when we see that Apple's rules apply to third parties, but not to Apple itself. This would allow Apple to preference its own offers or impede other companies. Our proceeding is largely based on the new competencies we received as part of the stricter abuse control rules regarding large digital companies which were introduced last year (Section 19a German Competition Act - GWB). On this basis, we are conducting or have already concluded proceedings against Google/Alphabet, Meta/Facebook and Amazon.

Apple's App Tracking transparency framework requires that all apps on iPhone and iPad ask for the user's permission before tracking their activity across other apps If the user allows it when prompted, apps that wish to track a user can do so.

The feature was designed to protect users, according to Apple. According to the preliminary findings, Apple is not subject to the new and additional rules of the app tracking transparency framework.

There was an earlier proceeding initiated against Apple that was set up to look into claims of anti-competitive behavior related to the App Store.

The possibilities for Apple to combine data across services and users' options regarding the processing of their data by Apple can be relevant in this context.

Facebook has been the most critical of the new change. Facebook accused Apple of impacting small businesses who rely on advertising as a way of keeping their doors open when Apple began to test the framework. Facebook claimed that the framework was anti-competitive because it gave Apple an advantage in mobile advertising.

According to a report by the Financial Times, ATT has led to a decline in Apple's advertising business. According to the report, Apple's share of the mobile app advertising market tripled in six months.

The ATT framework has been accused of benefiting Apple to the detriment of third parties. The study into the impact of ATT was conducted by the Columbia Business School's marketing division. The study concluded that Apple was unlikely to have seen a significant financial benefit since the privacy feature launched and that claims to the contrary were speculative.