Bundeskartellamt investigates Apple's advertising tracking stopper
Created: 06/14/2022, 12:24 p.m
The logo of the technology company Apple can be seen at the Apple store in the city center.
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
For a good year now, Apple customers have been able to decide whether apps are allowed to track their behavior for advertising purposes.
The Federal Cartel Office is now investigating whether Apple prefers its own services.
Bomn - The Federal Cartel Office has launched an investigation into Apple's anti-tracking regulations.
This was announced by the authority on Tuesday.
The focus is on how Apple enables its users to stop their behavior being tracked across different apps and websites.
The Federal Cartel Office now wants to investigate whether the regulations treat Apple's own offers preferentially or whether they could hinder other companies.
The group rejected the allegations.
Loud protests
The "App Tracking Transparency" (ATT) function announced in summer 2020 was introduced in April 2021 for the iPhone, iPad and the Apple TV set-top box after loud protests from the advertising industry.
Corporations such as Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), which are heavily dependent on advertising revenue, complained that without tracking they would no longer be able to display targeted advertising and would have to accept large losses in revenue.
In Germany, leading associations in the media, internet and advertising industries filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal Cartel Office in April 2021.
They claimed that the company with ATT abused its market power and violated antitrust law.
The President of the Bundeskartellamt, Andreas Mundt, said that one welcomes data-friendly business models that give users the freedom to choose how their data is used.
"A company like Apple, which can unilaterally set the rules in its ecosystem and especially in the App Store, should make them competitive." There would be reasonable doubt if Apple set rules for third parties that shouldn't apply to Apple of all people.
The data protection concept ATT
The head of the authority said that users could restrict the use of their data in relation to Apple in the settings with regard to their use for personalized advertising.
However, according to the preliminary status, Apple is not subject to the new and additional ATT regulations.
Apple explained that the ATT data protection concept gives users the choice of whether or not apps can track them or pass their information on to third parties.
"ATT does not prevent companies from serving advertisements, nor does it restrict the use of the data they receive from users with their consent."
According to Apple, these rules apply to all developers, including Apple.
At the same time, a company spokesman referred to the strong approval that Apple had received from authorities and data protection officers for this function.
"Apple adheres to a higher standard of data protection than almost any other company by giving users the opportunity to decide for themselves whether they want personalized advertising or not." Apple will continue to work constructively with the Federal Cartel Office to answer all questions clear up.
dpa