French competition authority issues antitrust objection to Apple for app data tracking

France’s competition authority has started an antitrust procedure against Apple by issuing a statement of objections on how the company uses user data from its iPhones for advertising purposes.

France's competition authority is investigating whether Apple is abusing its dominant position by asking users to opt into data collection by third party apps, but not its own apps. © Mike Segar/Reuters

The French Competition authority (Autorité de la concurrence) suspects Apple might "abuse its dominant position by implementing discriminatory, non-objective and non-transparent conditions for the use of user data for advertising purposes", it said in a statement published Tuesday.

The statement is the first step of a process during which the company will be able to explain itself, the watchdog said.

Apple investigation

The authority has been investigating Apple for several years, after French advertising industry groups filed an antitrust complaint in 2020 over changes Apple made to privacy features, when it implemented its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature, which asked iPhone users whether or not they wanted to allow third-party apps to gather data to be used for targeted ads.

Industry lobby groups said the feature lead to revenue declines, and that it gave Apple an unfair advantage, as its own apps did not include the feature.

The Competition authority did not block the introduction of ATT in 2021, but said it would investigate whether Apple was applying different rules on its own apps.

In Tuesday’s statement of objections, the regulator said it believes that Apple is in fact doing that.

Apple's response

In an emailed statement, Apple said the ATT feature "gives users more control by requiring all apps to ask permission before tracking them", adding that it would "continue to engage” constructively with the French regulator.

It said its own apps do not need an ATT prompt because they do not track users.

“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,” the company said.

Apple will have a chance to defend itself to the Competition authority, which said Tuesday’s statement is just a first step, and it does not presume any outcome of the investigation.

If found guilty of antitrust violations, the authority could impose fines or order the company to change its behaviour.

(with Reuters)