German media agencies and publishers are calling on the country’s competition authority to reject the changes proposed by Apple regarding App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and to impose penalties on the company. Here are the details.

A Bit of Background

The App Tracking Transparency feature allows users to choose whether their data is shared with third parties, while Apple is engaged in multiple competition battles, primarily in Europe.

Overall, the accusations are the same: App Tracking Transparency is anti-competitive.

From the publishers' perspective, there should be no barrier between publications and advertising data. Additionally, the fact that Apple’s own applications are not subject to the same restrictions imposed by ATT is also a concern.

Apple, naturally, rejects this characterization and makes the following claims:

“Apple holds itself to a higher standard than any third-party developer by allowing users to make a positive choice about whether they want personalized ads. Additionally, Apple has designed services and features such as Siri, Maps, FaceTime, and iMessage in such a way that the company cannot establish data connections between these services, even if it wanted to.”

Germany is one of the countries investigating whether ATT is anti-competitive. Last year, to appease the country’s competition authority, the company proposed several changes to the framework's rules.

According to the original report by Reuters on Apple’s proposed changes:

Apple agreed to offer neutral consent requests for both its own services and third-party applications and proposed to largely standardize the wording, content, and visual design of these messages, said Andreas Mundt, head of Germany’s Bundeskartellamt.

The company also suggested simplifying the consent process so that developers can obtain user permission for advertising-related data processing in compliance with data protection laws.

At that time, German regulators initiated a consultation with industry publications to address their concerns regarding the proposals.

As a result, the answer was a definite no.

German Publishers Go on the Offensive

Reuters reported today:

The changes proposed by Apple to its app tracking rules do not address the competition issues in the mobile advertising market, associations representing German publishers and advertisers called on the country’s competition authority on Tuesday to penalize the U.S. tech giant.

(…)

“The proposed commitments will not change the negative effects of the App Tracking Transparency Framework,” said Bernd Nauen, CEO of the German Advertising Federation, in a joint letter signed by trade organizations.

“Apple will continue to be the gatekeeper of data and will continue to decide who has access to advertising-related data and how companies can communicate with their end customers,” he said.

If the German regulator finds Apple in violation, the company could face penalties of up to 10% of its annual revenue. This decision could also negatively affect ATT reviews in other countries.

9to5Mac reached out to Apple for comment, and we will update this article if we receive a response.

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