March 31 (UPI) — France’s antitrust regulatory agency fined Apple millions of dollars, saying its digital framework negatively impacted online advertising via third-party pop-ups on Apple’s iOS and iPadOS operating systems.
On Friday, France’s Competition Authority, or Autorité de la concurrence, issued a ruling that fined Apple more than $162 million alleging its App Tracking Transparency, or ATT, digital privacy framework caused “definite harm” to advertisers and app publishers in violation of French antitrust laws which “could have been avoided by marginal modification” to Apple’s framework.
The authority found that Apple implemented its ATT framework in a manner that was “abusive” within the meaning of French competition laws, “in particular as the implementation methods artificially complicate the use of third-party applications and distort the neutrality of the framework to the detriment of small publishers financed by advertising.”
It was described by the authority as “particularly harmful” for small publishers and alleged that Apple treated itself and publishers differently.
“This is emblematic of the straight-jacket that big U.S. platforms are in when operating in Europe,” Kay Jebelli, a Belgian Computer engineer and competition lawyer, posted Monday on X.
But officials in Paris said that while Apple’s ATT’s privacy objective was not “at its core problematic,” how it was implemented was “neither necessary for nor proportionate with Apple’s stated objective of protecting personal data” which created a “complex and excessive system for the user.”
Apple introduced its framework in April 2021 when version 14.5 of the iOS and iPadOS operating systems were launched for smart mobile devices.
A March 2021 decision by the authority chose not to issue interim measures but opted to continue its investigation into the merits of the case. The complaint, however, was formally lodged in October 2020 by a number of associations, publishers, media, Internet and advertising platforms prior to Apple’s ATT framework which had been operated through July 2023.
While publishers were required to obtain double consent from users for tracking on third-party sites and applications, it was alleged Apple did not ask for consent from users of its own apps until the implementation of its iOS 15 operating system.
Officials pointed to Google and Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram which track a users digital journey after a user has viewed an advert.
France’s National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, its data protection authority, previously stated that making publishers “systematically collect user consent twice for the same purpose constitutes an unnecessary and artificial complexity.”
A web developer and analyst noted the French decision arrived weeks after Germany’s competition authority “provisionally determined the same.”
“Similar cases are underway in Italy, Poland, and Romania,” according to Boston-based analyst Eric Seufert.
The French Competition Authority, however, noted its decision may be appealed by Apple.
