Apple Makes Concessions on Ad Tracking After German Competition Scrutiny

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office said Monday that Apple committed to revising its App Tracking Transparency, or ATT, system after the regulator raised concerns about differences between consent requests used by Apple and those imposed on third-party developers, according to MacDailyNews. The authority concluded that the existing framework potentially ran afoul of competition rules by giving Apple’s apps more favorable treatment.

The changes underscore a growing challenge for Apple as European regulators scrutinize not only the company’s App Store practices but also whether policies promoted as privacy protections can distort competition. ATT requires apps to obtain permission before tracking users across other companies’ apps and websites for advertising purposes.

Under the commitments described by MacDailyNews, Apple will redesign consent prompts presented by third-party apps so that the wording and visual presentation are more neutral. Elements that regulators viewed as discouraging users from granting permission will be removed, while developers will receive greater flexibility to coordinate Apple’s tracking request with separate prompts required under data-protection rules.

The changes are intended to narrow differences between the treatment of Apple’s services and outside developers, an issue that had become central to the German investigation. Reuters separately reported Monday that the Federal Cartel Office found Apple’s own applications received more favorable consent prompts than third-party apps under the existing ATT framework.

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Apple will have four months after the German authority’s formal decision is served to implement the commitments, according to MacDailyNews. The measures are expected to remain in place for seven years and compliance will be monitored by an independent trustee. Apple said the revised approach will be introduced in almost all European Union countries.

The agreement could have implications for companies whose businesses depend heavily on digital advertising. Developers and advertising companies have argued that detailed information about users can improve the effectiveness and value of targeted advertising. Meta Platforms Inc. and other companies have been among the prominent critics of Apple’s tracking restrictions, according to MacDailyNews.

Apple, meanwhile, has positioned ATT as a privacy feature that gives consumers greater control over whether their activity can be followed across services. That privacy rationale has increasingly collided with competition regulators’ concerns over whether Apple applies comparable restrictions to itself and to businesses that depend on its mobile ecosystem.

The German resolution adds to regulatory pressure over ATT elsewhere in Europe. France previously fined Apple €150 million over issues related to the framework, while Italy imposed a €98.6 million penalty, according to MacDailyNews.

The latest settlement illustrates a broader antitrust question confronting technology platforms: whether companies controlling major operating systems and marketplaces can impose privacy and security rules on competitors while operating their own services under different conditions.

For Apple, the German case ends one investigation but reinforces the regulatory expectation that policies governing access to users and data must be applied without improperly favoring the platform owner. The company’s redesigned consent system will now become a test of whether it can preserve the privacy protections at the center of ATT while satisfying European authorities demanding more equal treatment of competing developers.

Source: MacDailyNews