Once again, Apple finds itself the focus of European antitrust regulators, this time from French authorities.
On July 25, the French National Regulatory Authority for Competition (Autorité de la concurrence) announced it had lodged a complaint regarding Apple's business practices in the field of mobile app distribution, which could potentially impact several related markets, including advertising services.
The Competition Authority, commonly referred to as the FCA, accuses Apple of abusing its market-dominating position by creating a "discriminatory, non-objective, and non-transparent" environment for the use of user data for advertising purposes.
Media reports noted previous complaints against Apple from various advertising industry organizations, facing scrutiny for using iOS system user data for targeted advertising. In 2021, advertising industry organizations attempted to prevent the rollout of Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature.
ATT requires third-party apps to request iOS users' permission to track their ad placement. Advertisers seeking to place ads have criticized Apple's practice as unfair since Apple's native iOS apps don't solicit users like third-party apps do, to allow Apple to use their data for personalized ads. Unless users manually opt out in the settings, they automatically allow Apple to track their data.
In March 2021, the French FCA declined to ban ATT but said it would continue its investigation into whether Apple's rules for its own apps were less restrictive than those for third-party developers. This week's warning suggests the regulator believes Apple indeed abuses its market position by favoring its own apps.
In response, Apple stated that ATT requires all apps to obtain users' permission before tracking their data. Apple, like all developers, must comply with ATT. Apple's apps do not display ATT's tracking permission prompt because they do not track or use user or device data for advertising purposes, nor do they share this data with data brokers.
Apple said that ATT's goals have been strongly supported by regulators, including the FCA, and the company will continue to engage constructively with the FCA to ensure users always control their data.
Even before these accusations by the French FCA, Apple had not resolved its antitrust lawsuits with the EU.
Last May, the EU officially launched an antitrust lawsuit against Apple for limiting users from purchasing technology and services through third parties on Apple devices. The primary targets of the investigation were Apple's proprietary mobile payment solution, Apple Pay, and its Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.
At the time, the EU believed Apple was suspected of abusing its dominant position in the mobile payment market on iOS devices, possibly reserving the "tap payment" feature of NFC for Apple Pay, thereby limiting competition and favoring Apple Pay.
As previously mentioned by Wall Street Journal, Apple could face massive fines for the above accusations, amounting to as much as 10% of its global annual revenue, and be forced to open its mobile payment system to competitors. Apple defended its actions on the grounds of "user safety," but the EU rejected this explanation.
Last June, Germany's antitrust authority announced an investigation into Apple's rules for tracking third-party apps, assessing whether these rules give preferential treatment to Apple or hinder other companies' business, explicitly noting that ATT could pose a problem.
