France fines Apple 150 million euros for its privacy feature.

French antitrust regulators fined Apple 150 million euros ($162 million) on Monday for its app monitoring privacy feature, which is now being investigated in several other European nations.

The watchdog claimed Apple’s implementation of its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) software was “neither necessary nor proportionate to the company’s stated goal to protect user data” and penalized third-party publishers.

In addition to the penalties, Apple must publicize the ruling on its website for seven days.
Authorities in Germany, Italy, Romania, and Poland have launched similar investigations into ATT, which Apple advertises as a privacy precaution.

Apple launched the feature in 2021, requiring applications to ask user authorization via a pop-up window before tracking their activities across apps and websites.

Authorities in Germany, Italy, Romania, and Poland have launched similar investigations into ATT, which Apple advertises as a privacy precaution.

Apple launched the feature in 2021, requiring applications to ask user authorization via a pop-up window before tracking their activities across apps and websites.

If they reject, the app loses access to the user’s advertising identification, which allows for ad targeting.

Critics have accused Apple of manipulating the system to promote its own advertising services while limiting competitors.

In its ruling, France’s Competition Authority stated that the ATT feature creates an excessive amount of authorization windows for third-party apps on iPhones and iPads, making the experience more onerous.

It also discovered that Apple’s mechanism forced users to opt out of ad tracking twice, “undermining the neutrality of the feature” and inflicting economic loss to app publishers and ad service providers.

The authority also stated that Apple’s method unfairly impacts smaller publications, which rely significantly on third-party data collecting to support their operations.

Following complaints from advertising sector operators alleging that ATT hampered their capacity to target customers, France’s competition commission first declined to apply emergency measures in 2021 but continued to investigate.