Apple formally under investigation by French regulators over app tracking transparency

Earlier this year, reports emerged that French regulators may investigate Apple for unfairly using its position as the operator of an app store to negatively influence advertising companies. At present, the French Competition Authority has officially notified Apple of the investigation.

The complaint was originally lodged by four French advertising trade groups. They argue that Apple has unfairly cut off the collection of user data that powers the advertising industry.The French competition authority issued its official response today [machine learning translated]:

Apple is accused of abusing its dominant position by imposing discriminatory, non-objective and non-transparent conditions on the use of user data for advertising purposes.

This investigative act opened contradictory proceedings and allowed the defense to exercise its rights. It cannot prejudge the guilt of a company that receives notice of the complaint. Only instructions carried out in a contradictory manner, consistent with the right of defense of the companies concerned, can the Academy determine whether the complaint is well-founded after an exchange of written opinions and an oral meeting.

The move opens up a new round of regulatory proceedings for Apple in France. Apple responded to the development in a statement to 9to5Mac, noting that regulators have been positive about its data protection policies in the past:

“App Tracking Transparency (ATT) gives users more control by requiring all apps to ask for permission before tracking. Like all developers, Apple must comply with ATT. Apple’s apps will not display ATT prompts because they don’t track, which means they won’t link user or device data with user or device data collected from other companies’ apps, websites, or offline properties for targeted advertising or ad measurement purposes, or share user or device data with data brokers. Its advertising business adheres to the highest privacy standards of any other developer by prompting users for explicit permission before optimizing ads. We have previously received strong support from regulators and privacy advocates, including the FCA and CNIL, for AT&T’s goals, and we will continue to engage constructively with the FCA to ensure users remain in control of their data.”

Follow our ongoing coverage of app tracking transparency here.