Apple faces App Tracking Transparency antitrust probe in France

In April, it was believed the French Competition Authority was preparing an antitrust investigation into Apple. On Tuesday, the Authorite de la Concurrence confirmed that it was going to investigate.

In a statement, the regulator confirms it has received a grievance about how Apple handles the sale and distribution of apps on the App Store. In a translation of the statement, Apple is accused of "having abused its dominant position by implementing discriminatory, non-objective and non-transparent conditions for the use of user data for advertising purposes."

Back in 2020, four online advertising groups in France made the complaint against Apple over the introduction of App Tracking Transparency. The program allowed users to have more control over whether apps could track them and report data back, which could be used by marketers for targeted advertising.

The IAB France, MMAF, UDECAM, and SRI all said Apple's changes didn't meet EU privacy rules, though Apple denies this to be the case. At the time, the authority rejected a request for "interim measures" to be placed against Apple, but that it would still look into the matter at hand.

With the opening of the investigation and an official notification to Apple, the regulator explains that it will conduct the probe, complete with written and oral observations, whether or not the grievance is well-founded. During this period, the agency "will not comment further on the practice in question."

In a statement received by AppleInsider about the investigation, Apple insists that it holds its advertising business "to a higher standard of privacy than it requires of any other developer by prompting users for explicit permission before delivering any personalized ads." Apple also has " previously received strong support from regulators and privacy advocates on the goal of ATT, including from the FCA and the CNIL," and the company "will continue to engage with the FCA constructively to ensure users remain in control of their data."

The App Tracking Transparency probe may not be Apple's only advertising issue in the country. Regulatory complaints have been made in the past over advertising tools offered by Apple, with allegations Apple doesn't subject itself to the same rules as third parties.

Apple has also been fined for numerous grievances, including an $8.5M fine over data privacy in iOS 14, and a $366M antitrust fine over alleged price fixing and abusing retailer economic dependency.

Apple's full statement follows:

"App Tracking Transparency (ATT) gives users more control by requiring all apps to ask permission before tracking them. Apple, like all developers, is required to comply with ATT. Apple's apps do not show an ATT prompt because they do not track, meaning they do not link user or device data with user or device data collected from other companies' apps, websites, or offline properties for targeted advertising or advertising measurement purposes, nor do they share user or device data with data brokers.

Additionally, Apple holds its advertising business to a higher standard of privacy than it requires of any other developer by prompting users for explicit permission before delivering any personalized ads. We have previously received strong support from regulators and privacy advocates on the goal of ATT, including from the FCA and the CNIL, and we will continue to engage with the FCA constructively to ensure users remain in control of their data."