A German competition authority said Apple’s prompts favored its own apps over third-party options.
Apple has been hit with another anti-competitive accusation, but this time over how the company tricks users into collecting data from apps. According to the Bundeskartellamt, or Germany’s independent competition authority, Apple’s pop-up prompts that allow users to allow or deny an app developer the collection of personal data tend to favor its own apps, rather than those created by third-party developers.
The German regulator’s anti-competitive allegation revolves around Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT), introduced in April 2021. The ATT framework invites Apple users to decide whether they want their data shared with an app they just opened. However, the Bundeskartellamt accused Apple of not applying a level playing field between the apps, saying that “the request wording, design and selection options used for Apple’s own offerings had the potential to encourage users to provide consent, while they had the potential to discourage consent for third-party apps.”
Following the German agency’s decision, Apple must make some changes. According to the Bundeskartellamt, Apple must remove “potentially discouraging symbols and wording in Apple’s predefined requests to third-party providers” and requests for consent to data collection must be “neutral in terms of content, wording and layout.” Apple has four months to implement the changes, while also requiring the company to test these revisions with app developers. The Bundeskartellamt said these commitments would last for seven years and an independent administrator would ensure Apple remained compliant. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment on the changes and will update the story when we hear back.
