Apple Fined for Privacy Power Play: France Hits Back at Anti-Competitive ATT Rollout
France’s competition watchdog has fined Apple €150 million for the way it rolled out its App Tracking Transparency feature—arguing the privacy update unfairly crushed competition.
Apple’s privacy stance has long been its crown jewel slick, simple, and positioned as the righteous answer to Big Tech’s data-hungry tactics. But France just called bluff. On Monday, the French Competition Authority fined Apple €150 million (about $162 million) not for trying to protect user privacy but for how it used privacy to reinforce its dominance and squeeze out smaller rivals.
Let’s be clear: the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature itself isn’t the problem. Requiring apps to ask users for permission before tracking them? Totally fair in theory. Apple rolled this out in April 2021, claiming it was a step forward for user control and data protection. And on the surface, it was.
But peel back the layers, and you see the issue: Apple implemented ATT in a way that wasn’t “necessary or proportionate,” according to French regulators. In practice, it created chaos for third-party apps, bombarding users with confusing pop-ups while Apple’s own ecosystem conveniently escaped the same level of friction. Apple claimed the prompt was clear and universal but the FCA wasn’t buying it.
Regulators saw a system that looked neutral but functioned with bias. Smaller developers were blindsided, many of whom rely on third-party data to keep their apps free and ad-supported. Apple’s rollout shoved them into a corner, forcing tough choices: start charging users or bleed revenue. Meanwhile, Apple’s ad business quietly got more valuable, and its grip on app distribution even tighter.
This isn’t just a fine it’s a warning shot. The penalty covers behavior from April 2021 to July 2023, but the message echoes wider: privacy cannot become a Trojan horse for market abuse. The fine might be a rounding error for Apple, which raked in $124 billion in revenue last quarter alone, but the precedent matters.
Apple insists ATT is about transparency and control, and it has the support of privacy advocates to back it up. But France’s regulators are asking a different question: What happens when control becomes a weapon?
ATT may have been sold as a win for privacy. But its rollout shows that even good intentions when deployed by giants can distort the market. The digital playing field isn’t just about who’s tracking what. It’s also about who gets to play by which rules.
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