Apple got an initial victory in France over its controversial attempt to implement stricter privacy changes in iOS 14.. The French competition regulator today rejected a request from lobby groups for the online advertising sector to block Apple’s counter-detection control. Apple, which was only announced in June last year, has since postponed plans to impose stricter transparency rules on data collection on developers. The updates actually require apps to ask a user’s permission to access the ad tracking ID on iOS 14.
A reference requesting that the measures be discontinued on antitrust grounds was submitted to the French competition watchdog in October. But the regulator chose Apple in its preliminary decision. The Autorité de la concurrence stated that it did not consider the new function to be an abusive practice by a company in a dominant position, which effectively destroyed the complainant’s objections.
The watchdog – who also consulted with the French regulator on data protection on the case – said he still intends to conduct an in-depth investigation into the updates to verify whether it is a form of self-preference by Apple is. It will now investigate whether Apple can apply more binding privacy rules to third parties than those it reserves for itself.
“We can not intervene just because there could be a negative impact on companies in the ecosystem,” said Isabelle de Silva, head of the French competition authority. The Wall Street Journal. “At this stage, we have not yet found any striking examples of discrimination.”
The decision puts a strain on businesses in the broader technology industry that want to stop Apple’s plans for their negative impact on digital advertising revenue. Europe already has some of the strictest privacy laws in the world and it seems that regulators are failing to relinquish controls for tracking data for citizens.
Facebook, among the most outspoken opponents of the updates on privacy, has attacked Apple’s newspaper advertising policy in the US. It is also preparing an antitrust case against the iPhone maker for fear that the changes will give it an unfair advantage in the ads displayed in the iOS App Store and elsewhere.