Apple faces German anti-trust probe
The case against Apple has been brought by German media and tech firms who fear "opt-in" ad tracker rules will massively hurt their revenues. Facebook is fiercely opposing the move. As many as nine industry groups lodged the case against Apple with the German Federal Cartel Office on Monday, saying that changes to iPhone settings will dent their advertising revenues. The move comes as the US tech giant is rolling out the latest version of its operating system, iOS 14.5, which would require users to opt into being tracked for the purpose of advertising. News DW.
Germany's main newspaper publishing lobby group and the Advertising Federation have filed the lawsuit at the country's federal cartel office. They said in a joint statement that Apple had stopped taking trade-related data from other competitors from its ecosystem through the new settings. As a result, Apple wants to dominate the sector.
Apple, on the other hand, says it owns users' data. It is up to them to decide who and with whom they will share the data. Apple has taken this new step in compliance with human rights and European Union privacy laws. They have denied all the allegations of the complainants.
Apple also said that users have been given control over whether iOS 14 users will be allowed to track an app or share data with a third party.
Germany's federal cartel office said it would look into the matter.
DBTech / BMT
