France Fine Apple $ 162 million on privacy function

The French antitrust authorities, on Monday 31 March 2025, delivered a fine of 150 million euros ($ 162 million) to Apple compared to its monitoring functionality of the privacy of the apps, which is also under control in several other European countries.

The Watchdog said that the way Apple implemented the transparency software of the monitoring of the apps (Att) was not “necessary or proportionate to the company declared the company to protect user data” and also penalized third -party publishers.

In addition to the fine, Apple will have to publish the decision on his website for seven days.

The authorities in Germany, Italy, Romania and Poland have opened similar probes on Att, which Apple promotes as safeguarding privacy.

“Although we are disappointed by today’s decision, the French competition authority did not require any specific modification to Att,” said Apple in a note.

The function, introduced by Apple in 2021, requires apps to obtain the user’s consent through a pop-up window before monitoring your business among other apps and websites.

If they decrease, the app loses access to information on that user that allows advertising targeting.

Critics have accused Apple of using the system to promote their advertising services by limiting competitors.

In his decision, the French competition authority stated that the Atto function leads to an excessive number of consent windows for third -party apps on iPhone and iPad, making the experience more cumbersome.

He also discovered that the Apple system has required users to give up monitoring ads twice instead of once, “undermining the neutrality of the function” and causing economic damage to app publishers and advertising services providers, reported AFP.

The Authority added that Apple’s approach affects the smallest publishers in a disproportionate way, which rely on the collection of third -party data data to finance their activities.

Following complaints from the actors of the advertising sector who said that Attus hindered their ability to direct users, the French competition guard dog initially refused to impose emergency measures in 2021 but continued his investigations.

Apple said on Monday that Att “offers users greater control of their privacy through a prompt prompt, clear and easy to understand on one thing: monitoring”.

“This prompt is coherent for all developers, including Apple, and we have received a strong support for this function from consumers, privacy supporters and data protection authorities all over the world,” he said.