German publishers pressure regulators to fine Apple for ATT

German media companies and publishers are urging the country’s antitrust agency to reject Apple’s proposed changes to App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and fine the company. Here are the details.

It’s a small background

When it comes to app tracking transparency, which allows users to choose whether their data is shared with third parties through app tracking, Apple is fighting a number of antitrust battles, most of them in Europe.

In general, the accusations are the same: App tracking displays are anti-competitive.

The way publishers see it, Apple shouldn’t stand between publishing and advertising data. They also face the fact that Apple’s applications are not subject to the same restrictions imposed by the ATT.

Apple, naturally, rejects this feature, demanding the following:

“Apple (…) holds itself to a higher standard than it expects from any third-party developer by giving users the option to confirm whether they would like personalized ads. And Apple has designed services and features like Siri, Maps, FaceTime, and iMessage in such a way that the company cannot connect data to all of those services even if it wanted to.”

One of the countries investigating whether ATT is uncompetitive is Germany. Last year, in an effort to appease the country’s antitrust watchdog, the company proposed several changes to the draft rules.

From Reuters‘ Actual coverage of Apple’s proposed changes:

Apple has agreed to introduce neutral consent instructions for both its services and third-party applications, and to further harmonize the wording, content and visual design of these messages, said Andreas Mundt, head of Germany’s Bundeskartellamt.

The company also proposed to simplify the consent process so that developers can obtain the user’s consent to process data related to advertising in a manner that complies with data protection law.

Meanwhile, German regulators launched a consultation with industry publications to determine whether the proposals addressed their concerns.

As it turns out, the answer was a resounding no.

German publishers fought back

As Reuters reported today:

Apple’s proposed changes to app tracking rules do not solve antitrust problems in the mobile advertising market, associations representing German publishers and advertisers said Tuesday as they urged the country’s antitrust authorities to impose the largest US tech fine.

(…)

“The proposed obligations will not change the negative effects of the App Tracking Transparency Framework,” Bernd Nauen, chief executive of the German Advertising Federation, said in a joint letter signed by the trade associations.

“Apple will remain the gatekeeper of data and will continue to determine who receives information related to advertising and how companies can communicate with their customers,” he said.

If the German watchdog finds Apple in violation, the company can be fined up to 10% of its annual profit. The decision could also hurt Apple’s case in other countries where the ATT is still under review.

9to5Mac has reached out to Apple for comment, and we’ll update this post when we hear back.

Update, 11:01 pm ET: In a statement to 9to5Mac, Apple said:

“At Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right, and we introduced App Tracking Transparency to give users an easy way to control whether apps have permission to track their activity across third-party apps and websites. The tracking industry has been fighting our efforts to keep users in control of their data, and this is their latest attempt to gain unfettered access to our users. We will continue to protect this important tool of ours.”

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