Apple fined €150 million over App Tracking Transparency issues

April 2, 2025

Autorité de la concurrence, France's antitrust watchdog, has fined Apple €150 million ($162 million) for using the App Tracking Transparency privacy framework to abuse its dominant market position in mobile app advertising on its devices.

App Tracking Transparency (ATT) requires apps to request users' permission to collect their data for targeted advertising purposes before tracking them across websites, apps, and services owned by other companies. Apple introduced the data privacy tool in June 2020 and began enforcing its use in April 2021 with the release of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5.

The French competition authority said that although ATT's goal is not inherently problematic, its implementation is neither necessary nor proportionate to Apple's declared objective of protecting its customers' personal information.

"ATT as implemented by Apple penalised smaller publishers in particular since, unlike the main vertically integrated platforms, they depend to a large extent on third-party data collection to finance their business," the competition regulator said.

"Although the introduction of ATT has impacted all application publishers, the framework has been particularly harmful for smaller publishers that do not enjoy alternative targeting possibilities, in particular in the absence of sufficient proprietary data."

As the French competition watchdog explained, the ATT framework fails to comply with GDPR standards due to its lack of neutrality and the overly complicated user experience it implements.

Using multiple consent pop-ups puts app publishers at a disadvantage, as users must confirm tracking consent twice but can easily refuse it with a single click, the Autorité de la concurrence said.

ATT also creates an imbalance, given that user access to Apple apps is easier because the company exempts its apps from the regulations that third-party app publishers must follow or provide access to their apps.

"As part of its investigation into the merits of the case, the Autorité found that while the objective of the App Tracking Transparency ("ATT") framework is not at its core problematic, how ATT is implemented is neither necessary for nor proportionate with Apple's stated objective of protecting personal data," the watchdog said.

"While the principle of the ATT framework is not problematic in terms of the likely benefits for users as regards privacy protection, the Autorité found that how the framework is implemented is abusive within the meaning of competition law, in particular as the implementation methods artificially complicate the use of third-party applications and distort the neutrality of the framework to the detriment of small publishers financed by advertising."

Given the seriousness of the facts, Apple's economic power, and the duration of the infringement (between 26 April 2021 and 25 July 2023), the French competition watchdog imposed a fine of €150 million and also ordered Apple to publish the decision's summary on its website for seven consecutive days.

The fine comes one year after the European Commission fined Apple €1.8 billion (roughly $1.95 billion) for abusing its dominant market position to prevent other music streaming services from promoting cheaper services outside its App Store.

Two years ago, France's data protection authority (CNIL) also fined Apple €8 million ($8.5 million) for collecting user data for targeted advertising on the App Store without consent.