Germany’s FCO concluded that Apple is potentially in breach of rules governing competitiveness.

Germany’s competition authority, the Bundeskartellamt – or Federal Cartel Office (FCO) – has found that Apple must change the consent prompts that govern tracking and personalised advertising for iPhone and iPad devices. 

The changes are expected to apply across most other EU countries.

Apple’s model, the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, requires third-party apps to obtain permission before tracking users across company apps and websites. The FCO’s concern is that the system deliberately produces different consent experiences for non-Apple competing apps, services and advertising activities. 

Potentially, the differences in wording, presentation and available choices make Apple’s services more attractive options, putting third-party developers at a distinct disadvantage. 

The FCO concluded that Apple is potentially in breach of rules governing competitiveness.

Under the ruling, Apple must redesign its consent pop-ups for third-party apps. This includes the removal of discouraging language and symbols, as well as ensuring that pop-ups are visually and linguistically ​neutral.

The investigation first began in 2022 and Apple will now have four months from the date the decision was made to implement the changes. The ruling will be in effect for seven years, with compliance to be overseen by a monitoring trustee. 

Commenting on the decision, Andreas Mundt, the president of the FCO, said, “Effective protection of personal data and privacy is of paramount importance when using apps. Apple may provide its users with a level of protection that exceeds the minimum legal requirements. 

“However, if Apple establishes additional rules for data use within its ecosystem, our special rules on abuse of dominance for large digital corporations prohibit it from treating its own offerings more favourably than those of its competitors. This was precisely the core of our competition concerns.

“Apple will now significantly standardise user queries and give third-party app developers more options to meaningfully combine the necessary queries.”

Apple said, “While we believe the current ATT prompt provides a clear, ​easy to understand and effective way to keep users in control of their data – ‌an ⁠opinion shared by the German data protection authorities – we have agreed to make changes to the text and formatting of the prompt at the FCO’s request.”

In March of last year, Apple lost a court appeal challenging the FCO, in a case where the governing body designated the tech giant as a significant market power. It was argued that Apple operates a wide-ranging digital ecosystem, holding a key position for competition worldwide and in Germany.

At the time, Mundt explained that this designation enables the office to “take action against and effectively prohibit anti-competitive practices”.

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