Germany Hits Apple With Antitrust Complaint Over New iPhone Software

Apple has been accused of antitrust abuse in Germany as it prepares to roll out a new version of its iPhone software. A complaint was filed to Bundeskartellamt, Germany’s competition regulator, on Monday, April 26. The news was first reported by The Financial Times and confirmed to CNBC by a Bundeskartellamt spokesperson.

Apple’s iOS 14.5 software will include a feature called ATT, or App Tracking Transparency. The feature will force app developers to ask users if they’re happy to be tracked for advertising purposes, and many iPhone owners are expected to say no.

Companies that rely on online advertising, especially Facebook, have claimed that the privacy change will reduce the effectiveness and profitability of targeted ads and potentially roil the online advertising business.

The complaint was filed by ZAW, the German Advertising Federation, on behalf of the nine industry associations that it represents. The association’s members include the likes of Facebook and media giant Axel Springer, which owns Insider and Bild.

ZAW argues in the complaint that Apple’s ATT feature abuses its market power and violates antitrust law.

“Through these unilaterally imposed measures, Apple effectively excludes all competitors from processing commercially relevant data in the Apple ecosystem,” ZAW stated in a press release. “At the same time, however, the group excludes its own (advertising) services from the planned changes and collects significant amounts of user data itself.”