Apple sentenced to a fine of 150 million euros in France for abuse of dominant position – Liberation

A beautiful plum for the little apple. Apple was sentenced this Monday, March 31 to a fine of 150 million euros on Monday, March 31 for abuse of a dominant position within the framework of the Advertising targeting on its devicesannounced the French competition authority at a press conference. The company will also have to publish a summary of the decision on its website for seven days.

The American giant is sanctioned for the use of its ATT (« App Tracking Transparency » system), presented as additional protection of private user data. THE « Methods of implementation (of this system) are neither necessary, nor proportionate to the objective displayed by Apple of data protection »which penalizes third -party publishers, underlined the body on Monday at a press conference.

To justify its decision, the competition authority notes that this system « Debts a multiplication of the consent windows excessively complicating the route of third -party applications » On iPhone and iPad. In addition, the fact for the user of having to refuse twice, instead of one, advertising tracing on third -party applications « Including the neutrality of the system, causing certain economic prejudice to application publishers and advertising service providers ». As implemented by Apple, the competition authority considers that the system « Particularly penalizes the smallest publishers » Who « Large depend on the collection of third -party data to finance their activity ».

Introduced by the American giant in early 2021, the ATT device gives rise to the opening of a consent window when each application is opened. If a user clicks on « No », the application loses access to the advertising identifier of this person, a unique number that allows them to be run online. This system was suspected of promoting Apple’s own services to the detriment of third -party applications.

Seized by advertising actors, who denounce an obstacle to their targeting capacity, the French competition gendarme had rejected in 2021 a request for protective measures, but had continued the investigation. Apple is also in the crosshairs of other competition authorities on this subject, notably in Germany, Italy, Romania and Poland.