The French regulator imposed a fine of EUR 150 million for abuse of dominant position in advertising through the App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which allegedly damaged smaller publishers.
The French antitrust regulator imposed a fine of EUR 150 million for the misuse of the dominant position on advertising on mobile applications on iOS and iPads from April 2021 to July 2023 thanks to a privacy control tool. TASR informs about this based on AP and Reuters reports.
According to the French Competition Office, the Apple App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which requires users to agree to collect third -party applications, is not itself criticized. But “the way it was implemented was neither necessary nor the appropriate declared objective of Apple, which is the protection of personal data”.
The importance of ATT function
The frame requires users to agree to collect third -party applications in Apple systems to be better protected by their privacy and display a window in a partially standardized format.
ATT allows iPhone and iPad users to decide which applications can track their activity, but advertisers and competitors have criticized online advertising. Investigations in France have launched complaints of several associations for online advertisers, publishers and internet networks accused of Apple of alleged abuse of their market force.
First fine for Apple for ATT
A fine in France is the first fine of any antitimonopoly regulator towards Apple for its transparency of application tracking (ATT).
According to the Antimonopoly Office, the tool for the protection of personal data “penalized mainly smaller publishers”, since they are largely dependent on the collection of third -party data in funding their business.
