France Fines Apple $162 Million for Privacy Abuse

Apple has been fined 150 million € (162 million$) by the French antitrust regulator for its anticompetitive use of its App Tracking Transparency tool, which the company touts as a privacy protection tool but which in reality gave it a market advantage.

The French Competition Authority (FCA) has accused Apple of using App Tracking Transparency (ATT) — a tool that limits third-party apps from tracking users — to strengthen its dominant position in the mobile advertising market.

1. ATT forces third-party apps to obtain consent to tracking through a series of complex pop-ups that the FCA says were deliberately designed to be overly intrusive. While Apple’s own services required a simple checkmark, creating an uneven playing field.
2. The consequences for small publishers that depend on advertising partnerships have been significant. The ATT tool, while presented as a privacy protection, has actually deprived them of a significant portion of their revenue, while preserving profits for Apple, which could monetize the data of users who agreed to be tracked.

The regulator noted that it is not requiring Apple to change the operation of ATT, but recognized the company’s actions as “undermining the neutrality of the advertising environment” and causing real economic harm to publishers.

Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency in 2021, positioning it as a breakthrough in the field of privacy. Users could independently choose whether to allow applications to collect their personal data. However, advertising companies and Apple’s competitors have criticized ATT from the very beginning, considering it not a protection tool, but a method of crowding out competitors from the mobile advertising market. In 2024, Apple earned $124 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter alone, making the FCA fine a symbolic but important precedent.

The fine is not only an attempt to restore competition in the mobile advertising market, but also a clear signal from European regulators: even giants that cloak their business models with privacy concerns will not escape liability for abuse. Apple will likely avoid any real policy changes, but its reputation as a “privacy advocate” has taken a significant hit.