A number of German associations active in the media, internet and advertising industries have filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal Cartel Office, accusing the tech giant of abusing its market position and violating antitrust law with its new 'App Tracking Transparency' rules for iOS.
The iOS update obliges app providers to prompt users to opt-in before processing their data for advertising. Apps will ask users to allow or not to track their activities. Moreover, Apple will in future oblige app developers to display another declaration provided by Apple, if they want to merge the data of the users, according to the associations. The apps will be removed from the app store if developers do not comply.
App developers fear their revenues from advertising will decrease significantly due to the changes, as many users reject the tracking. This threatens in particular smaller app providers, the associations said. The associations accuse Apple of excluding competitors from commercially processing relevant data in its ecosystem.
The associations build the complaint on new provisions in the Act against Competition Restraints (GWB), which came into force at the beginning of the year and enables the Federal Cartel Office to take more effective action against abuse of dominant market positions by platforms such as Apple. The associations that filed the complaint include the Online Research Association, the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers, the Organization of the media agencies, the association of German Magazine Publishers and the Central Association of the German Advertising Industry, among others.
