Apple Sued For $2.7 Billion Over App Tracking Transparency Rules (engadget.com)
(Thursday September 03, 2026 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the legal-battles dept.)
- Reference: 0185412380
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/09/03/2015253/apple-sued-for-27-billion-over-app-tracking-transparency-rules
- Source link: https://www.engadget.com/2250555/apple-sued-for-2-billion-over-app-tracking-transparency-rules/
A former UK competition official has [1]filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Apple on behalf of app developers, alleging its App Tracking Transparency rules [2]unfairly disadvantaged third-party apps while favoring Apple's own advertising ecosystem . Engadget reports:
> ATT [3]debuted in 2021, ostensibly to give users more control over how much of their activity app developers can track across other apps and websites. The company told Reuters it was "bound by the exact same requirements as all developers."
>
> However, regulators across Europe including in France, Italy and Poland have [4]investigated ATT. Germany's competition regulator, the Federal Cartel Office, last month [5]determined that Apple was favoring its own apps over those from external developers. It said the ATT pop-ups Apple used for its services "had the potential to encourage users to give their consent, whereas they had the potential to discourage consent for third-party apps."
>
> As such, the company agreed to make some changes to how ATT works in the European Union. That follows the French Competition Authority fining Apple $175 million at current rates over ATT last year.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/apple-facing-27-billion-uk-lawsuit-over-unfair-app-tracking-rules-2026-09-03/
[2] https://www.engadget.com/2250555/apple-sued-for-2-billion-over-app-tracking-transparency-rules/
[3] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/21/07/10/1915221/after-apples-app-tracking-transparency-advertisers-spent-more-money-targeting-android-users
[4] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/22/06/18/2310249/german-regulators-open-investigation-into-apples-app-tracking-transparency
[5] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/03/10/050253/german-publishers-push-regulators-to-fine-apple-over-app-tracking-transparency
> ATT [3]debuted in 2021, ostensibly to give users more control over how much of their activity app developers can track across other apps and websites. The company told Reuters it was "bound by the exact same requirements as all developers."
>
> However, regulators across Europe including in France, Italy and Poland have [4]investigated ATT. Germany's competition regulator, the Federal Cartel Office, last month [5]determined that Apple was favoring its own apps over those from external developers. It said the ATT pop-ups Apple used for its services "had the potential to encourage users to give their consent, whereas they had the potential to discourage consent for third-party apps."
>
> As such, the company agreed to make some changes to how ATT works in the European Union. That follows the French Competition Authority fining Apple $175 million at current rates over ATT last year.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/apple-facing-27-billion-uk-lawsuit-over-unfair-app-tracking-rules-2026-09-03/
[2] https://www.engadget.com/2250555/apple-sued-for-2-billion-over-app-tracking-transparency-rules/
[3] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/21/07/10/1915221/after-apples-app-tracking-transparency-advertisers-spent-more-money-targeting-android-users
[4] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/22/06/18/2310249/german-regulators-open-investigation-into-apples-app-tracking-transparency
[5] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/03/10/050253/german-publishers-push-regulators-to-fine-apple-over-app-tracking-transparency
Apple has an advertising ecosystem? (Score:2)
Since when does Apple have an advertising ecosystem? I mean, I know there was that brief iAd disaster, but that's been dead for a decade now.
Is competing with the absence of something a problem from an antitrust perspective? If so, explain why, and how intrusive advertising benefits users, rather than app developers.
I'm with Apple on this one. Squarely.
Re: (Score:2)
Been creeping in for a bit. First in news, then in the stock ticker, tv, music, books, and now maps.
All passed off as helpful "suggestions."
The ones that really torque me off are "suggestions" in books, tv and music. I've disabled what I can but some of this can't be turned off.
Apple makes enough with hardware alone. They don't need to whoreify the whole "ecosystem."
I let 'em know what I think of it, but that all goes to the bitbucket. No one gives a rip. 2.5 billion is not even a dime's worth of pocke
Re: (Score:2)
They've been running ads in the app store since 2016.
Re: (Score:2)
> They've been running ads in the app store since 2016.
Well, yeah, but that's ads running in an entirely closed ecosystem. I guess in a silly way, you could argue that in-app ads with tracking disabled are less effective, and App Store ads provide another way to get eyes on apps, so it kind of competes, but that's like saying that Special Rollback Deal signs inside an individual Walmart store compete with Google AdSense. It's technically correct, but not particularly interesting.
Put another way, I can't imagine that any significant number of people who, prior
Re: (Score:2)
> Well, yeah, but that's ads running in an entirely closed ecosystem.
They're still tracking what users are using to sell to them.
Re: (Score:2)
> I don't know what identifiers Apple actually uses, but if there is any truth to that, then yeah, it's hypocritical.
It's also at least *mostly* academic. If Apple charges only for actual clicks, rather than impressions, then the cost to the advertiser is arguably the same whether the targeting is good or not. The only difference is the cost to Apple itself.
I would assume the main signal that Apple has is whether the user already has the app installed and/or has previously tried the app and deleted it. And while I understand why app developers would *like* to be able to know every app you have installed so that they ca
Re: Apple has an advertising ecosystem? (Score:2)
The better the tracking data, the more targeted the impression, the higher the clickthru rate. Crafting tracking consent dialogs in a way that favors one app or the other is going to increase the efficiency of campaign placements that target users of that app, rather than campaigns run by app developers who experience a lower percent of users consenting to track.