German media agencies and publishers are urging the country’s antitrust watchdog to reject Apple’s proposed changes to App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and impose a fine on the company. Here are the details.
A little background
When it comes to the App Tracking Transparency feature, which allows users to choose whether their data is shared with third parties via cross-app tracking, Apple is struggling. multiple antitrust battlesmost of them in Europe.
In general, the accusations are the same: App Tracking Transparency is anti-competitive.
As publishers see it, Apple should not stand between publishing and advertising data. They also take issue with the fact that Apple’s own apps are not subject to the same restrictions imposed by ATT.
Apple, naturally, rejects this characterization, stating the following:
“Apple (…) holds itself to a higher standard than it holds any third-party developer by offering users the ability to choose whether or not they want personalized ads. And Apple has designed services and features like Siri, Maps, FaceTime, and iMessage in such a way that the company can’t link data across those services even if it wanted to.”
One of the countries investigating whether the TCA is anti-competitive is Germany. Last year, in a bid to appease the country’s antitrust watchdog, the company proposed several changes to the framework’s rules.
Of Reuters‘original coverage of Apple’s proposed changes:
Apple had agreed to introduce neutral consent messages for both its own services and third-party apps, and to largely align the wording, content and visual design of these messages, said Andreas Mundt, head of Germany’s Bundeskartellamt.
The company also proposed to simplify the consent process so that developers can obtain user permission for processing advertising-related data in a way that complies with data protection law.
At the time, German regulators began a consultation with industry publications to determine whether the proposals addressed their concerns.
Turns out the answer was a resounding no.
German publishers fight back
As Reuters reported today:
Apple’s proposed changes to its app tracking rules do not resolve antitrust problems in the mobile advertising market, associations representing German publishers and advertisers said on Tuesday and urged the country’s antitrust authority to impose a fine on the American tech giant.
(…)
“The proposed commitments would not change the negative effects of the App Tracking Transparency Framework,” Bernd Nauen, chief executive of the German Advertising Federation, said in a joint letter signed by the trade bodies.
“Apple would remain the data gatekeeper and would continue to decide who has access to advertising-relevant data and how companies can communicate with their end customers,” he said.
If the German watchdog determines that Apple has committed a violation, the company could be fined up to 10% of its annual turnover. The decision could also hurt Apple’s case in other countries where ATT remains under scrutiny.
9to5Mac has reached out to Apple for comment and we will update this post if we hear back.
Update, 11:01 p.m. ET: In a statement to 9to5Mac, Apple said:
“At Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right, and we introduced App Tracking Transparency to give users a simple way to control whether apps have permission to track their activity across other companies’ apps and websites. The tracking industry has consistently fought our efforts to keep users in control of their data, and this is just their latest attempt to gain unrestricted access to personal information. We will continue to defend this important privacy tool for our users.”
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