France Fines Apple Over Ad Tracking Feature

France’s competition regulator has fined Apple 150 million euros (£126m) over the iPhone maker’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) tool for abusing its market dominance on its own devices.

The fine is the first over ATT, which was introduced in April 2021 and was heavily criticised at the time by advertising organisations, ad-oriented tech firms such as Meta and publishers.

But the feature is facing multiple investigations, including from competition regulators in Germany, Italy, Poland and Romania.

‘Disproportionate’

The French case covered the period from 2021 to 2023 and was triggered by complaints from online advertising associations, publishers and online networks.

The French Competition Authority said that while it did not dispute Apple’s objective in protecting users’ privacy, the way ATT was implemented “is neither necessary nor proportionate to Apple’s stated objective of protecting personal data”.

It said the tool had “particularly penalised smaller publishers” as they depend to a large degree on collecting third-party data to fund their activities.

Organisations that had filed complaints, including Alliance Digitale, the Syndicat des Regies Internet (SRI), the Union des Entreprises de Conseil et d’Achat Média (Udecam) and the Groupement des Éditeurs de Services en Ligne, called the fine a significant victory for advertisers.

The ATT tool launches pop-up messages for every new app, asking users to explicitly consent to tracking for the purposes of personalised advertising and giving users the opportunity to turn off tracking.

‘Strong support’

The French regulator said the barrage of pop-ups made the interface difficult to navigate for users.

Apple disputed this, saying the prompts were “clear and easy-to-understand” and applied to its own apps as well as those from third parties.

“We have received strong support for this feature from consumers, privacy advocates, and data protection authorities around the world,” the company said, adding that the regulator had not mentioned specific changes to ATT.

Benoit Coeure, president of the FCA, told reporters at a press conference that it was up to Apple to make sure it came into compliance, but he noted that this could take time as the company awaited rulings on ATT from other European investigations.

Apple is involved in multiple EU investigations as the bloc pushes it to come into compliance with Digital Markets Act competition laws.