French court saves Apple from possible ban over iPhone privacy feature
Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- Macworld reports that a French court has ruled in favor of Apple, preventing a possible ban on its App Tracking Transparency feature that requires user consent for cross-app tracking.
- The ruling is significant as advertisers have challenged ATT for limiting personalized advertising data, while Apple faces a €150 million fine from the French antitrust regulator.
- ATT continues to face increased scrutiny in European countries, including Germany, Italy and Poland, highlighting the ongoing global debate over digital privacy versus advertising interests.
Apple has escaped a French ban on its App Tracking Transparency feature, at least for now, after a Paris court ruled in its favor this week.
This feature, touted as a privacy benefit for users, requires iOS apps to ask for permission before tracking them across other apps and websites. If the user refuses, all this useful data is retained, thus preventing the deployment of personalized advertisements. The majority of advertisers therefore want this functionality removed.
And it seemed like they were making progress, at least within the EU. Last March, the Competition Authority, France’s antitrust regulator, fined Apple 150 million euros (about $176 million at current exchange rates). In the text of its decision, the regulator described the TCA as “neither necessary nor proportionate” and its implementation “abusive within the meaning of competition law”.
Advertisers and third-party app developers who rely on personalized advertising for revenue were hoping the fine would be followed by a total ban on the feature in France. But La Tribune reports that a Parisian judge ruled in favor of Apple and that ATT will not be suspended. Apple quickly released a statement welcoming the decision and pledging to continue to protect user privacy.
It’s unclear how Apple would have treated the group if the decision had gone against transparency in app tracking. The privacy feature has been built into Apple’s operating system since iOS 14.5, so removing it would require massive changes.
However, this may not mean the end of ATT’s problems in Europe. As MacRumors notes, this feature remains under scrutiny in Germany, Italy and Poland.
