France Fines Apple $162 Million, Alleging Privacy Tool Violated Competition Law

France’s competition regulator has fined Apple 150 million euros (about $162 million), alleging that the company’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) made the use of third-party applications in the iOS environment “excessively complex.”

This complexity amounted to abuse of Apple’s dominant position in the distribution of mobile apps on iOS and iPadOS devices between April 2021 and July 2023, the Autorité de la concurrence said in a Monday (March 31) press release.

“As part of its investigation into the merits of the case, the Autorité found that while the objective of the App Tracking Transparency (‘ATT’) framework is not at its core problematic, how ATT is implemented is neither necessary for nor proportionate with Apple’s stated objective of protecting personal data,” the release said.

Apple did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The company told Reuters, per a report posted Monday: “While we are disappointed with today’s decision, the French Competition Authority has not required any specific changes to ATT.”

ATT, which Apple introduced in April 2021 with the launch of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, protects the privacy of users of iPhones and iPads by asking for their consent before allowing third-party applications downloaded from the App Store to collect user data for targeted advertising purposes, according to the French regulator’s press release.

In October 2020, after Apple announced that it would introduce ATT, several associations representing players in the online advertising industry filed a complaint with the regulator, saying the technology would present an obstacle to targeted advertising, per the release.

The regulator ruled that ATT is abusive in terms of competition law because it leads to multiple consent pop-ups being displayed, requires users to consent twice to advertising tracking but refuse only once, and, until the implementation of iOS 15, required users to consent only once to Apple’s data tracking but twice for third parties’ data collection, the release said.

Apple told PYMNTS in July 2023 that ATT gives users added control by requiring apps to ask permission before tracking them.

The company said it had received “strong support from regulators and privacy advocates on the goal of ATT,” and would continue to work to make sure users hold onto control of their data.