Apple has been handed a hefty fine of 150 million euros ($162 million) by French antitrust regulators over its controversial App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature.
The French Competition Authority ruled that Apple’s implementation of ATT, introduced in 2021, was “neither necessary nor proportionate” to the company’s stated goal of protecting user data, and it unfairly penalized third-party app publishers.
Alongside the fine, Apple has been ordered to publish the ruling on its website for seven days.
This decision comes amid ongoing investigations in other European countries, including Germany, Italy, Romania, and Poland, all examining the impacts of ATT on competition and the digital advertising industry.
The ATT feature requires apps to ask users for explicit consent before tracking their activity across other apps and websites.
If users decline, the app loses access to the advertising identifier, limiting the effectiveness of targeted advertising.
While the feature aims to protect user privacy, critics argue that it benefits Apple by restricting competitors while boosting its own advertising services.
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The French Competition Authority found that ATT complicates the user experience by forcing them to navigate multiple consent windows when interacting with third-party apps on iPhones and iPads.
Furthermore, the system requires users to opt out of ad tracking twice instead of once, which the authority believes undermines the neutrality of the feature.
This, according to regulators, has caused significant economic harm to app publishers and ad service providers, particularly smaller publishers who rely heavily on third-party data for revenue.
Despite initial complaints from the advertising industry in 2021, the French watchdog delayed taking action until its investigation led to this decision, marking a significant setback for Apple amid growing scrutiny of its privacy practices across Europe.
