France fines Apple €150M for abusing its dominance in ATT consent practices on iOS and iPadOS from 2021 to 2023.
France’s Autorité de la concurrence fined Apple €150M for abusing its dominance in App Tracking Transparency (ATT) consent practices on iOS and iPadOS between April 26, 2021 and July 25, 2023.
Apple launched ATT with iOS 14.5, which requires apps to get user consent to access the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) for tracking and targeted ads.
The Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) is a unique, random identifier assigned by Apple to a user’s device. It allows advertisers to track user activity across apps and websites for targeted advertising while maintaining user anonymity. Users can reset or disable IDFA through privacy settings.
France’s Autorité found Apple’s ATT framework, while not inherently problematic, was implemented in a way that was unnecessary and disproportionate. Apple’s ATT framework caused excessive pop-ups, complicating third-party app use. It lacked neutrality and harmed smaller publishers reliant on third-party data, leading to economic disadvantages for app developers and ad service providers.
“As part of its investigation into the merits of the case, the Autorité found that while the objective of the App Tracking Transparency (“ATT”) framework is not at its core problematic, how ATT is implemented is neither necessary for nor proportionate with Apple’s stated objective of protecting personal data.” reads the report published by France’s Autorité de la concurrence.
Apple’s ATT framework, though intended for privacy, was found to unfairly disadvantage third-party apps by making their use overly complex and favoring Apple’s own services. The Autorité ruled that ATT’s implementation distorted competition, harming smaller publishers reliant on ad revenue. Apple also imposed stricter consent rules on others while benefiting from a simpler process for its own data collection. The framework’s asymmetry, where Apple required double consent from third-party apps but not itself, led to regulatory penalties. The Autorité considered these rules unnecessary, as they harmed competition and made third-party apps more difficult to use without valid reasoning.
The head of the French Competition Authority dismissed worries that the decision would prompt retaliation from U.S. President Donald Trump who has threatened to slap fines on EU countries fining U.S. companies.
“We apply competition law in an apolitical manner,” Benoit Coeure, the head of the French Competition Authority, told a press conference. “But what we have heard … is that they (U.S. authorities) intend to apply antitrust law to the big digital platforms as strictly as their predecessors. So in terms of antitrust, I don’t see any controversy between the United States and Europe on how we apply the law,” he added.
Apple expressed disappointment with the decision, noting that the French Competition Authority did not mandate any specific changes to the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework.
“While we are disappointed with today’s decision, the French Competition Authority has not required any specific changes to ATT,” reads a statement issued by the IT giant.
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Pierluigi Paganini
(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Ukraine)
