Apple scores legal victory in France over changes to app privacy

“We cannot intervene just because it could negatively impact businesses in the ecosystem,” Isabelle de Silva, head of the French competition authority, said at a press conference. “At this stage we have not found any blatant examples of discrimination.”

However, the authority said it plans to conduct an in-depth investigation to determine whether Apple’s changes could be considered “self-preferred” by imposing stricter rules on third-party apps than on itself. That investigation could extend to next year, Ms. de Silva said.

Wednesday’s decision dispels a source of doubt about Apple’s plans, announced last year, to require apps on its smartphones and tablets to get opt-in consent from users before collecting their advertising IDs, uniquely strings of letters and numbers that companies use to identify individuals in order to show them targeted ads and track how ad campaigns have performed.

Privacy advocates and regulators have generally praised measures like Apple’s, saying consumers should have as much control as possible over how their data is collected and used. In recent years, a drive for greater online privacy has led to new laws in Europe and California. But companies in the online advertising ecosystem have said such changes put them at a competitive disadvantage.

The companies behind the complaint, filed last fall through a group of trade associations, had argued that few Apple users agree to be tracked, making it harder for apps to monetize personalized ads and companies broker their sales , causes harm.

Damien Geradin, the competition attorney representing the coalition of industry groups, said the companies were disappointed with the French decision but were confident the authority would open an in-depth investigation. “Apple isn’t off the hook yet,” said Mr. Geradin.

Apple welcomed the decision, saying it would cooperate with the authority in the investigation. “We firmly believe that users’ data is their property and that they should control when that data is shared and with whom,” said an Apple spokesperson.

The French regulator’s decision comes as tech giants, including Apple, Alphabet Inc.’s

Google, Amazon.com Inc.

and Facebook Inc.

are increasingly under scrutiny in Europe and the US – both on antitrust grounds for their treatment of smaller rivals and for privacy reasons, for the collection of users’ personal data.

Wednesday’s decision is the first major decision to highlight how that urge to protect user privacy may conflict with regulators’ efforts to protect online competition. That’s because one of the technology’s most popular business models is targeting individuals based on their online behavior, and smaller companies sometimes accuse the giants of using privacy as a pretext to shut down data they need to do so. to have.

Earlier this month, some companies complained that Google’s plan to stop supporting or using technology that tracks individuals’ browsing habits for advertising purposes would only increase Google’s advertising monopoly because it already has so much data about users from its own properties. has.

“We are seeing more and more competitive concerns around privacy and data protection,” Ms. De Silva said Wednesday, adding that she had sought advice from the French privacy regulator, which she said had supported Apple’s plans as good for users and would be applied neutrally.

Ms. De Silva said her authority could also investigate Google’s plan to remove tracking technology from the Chrome browser, similar to the UK Competition and Markets Authority.

Facebook has also attacked the Apple plan, arguing that it is an abuse of dominance that would hurt smaller businesses. But limiting Apple’s IDs would also undermine one of Facebook’s strengths: how it collects data from mobile apps about what people do in the apps, what they search for, what they buy, and more.

The complaint that led to Wednesday’s decision concerns Apple’s move to introduce its own language and ask users to sign up, separate from the questions already required by European privacy law.

The complaint also highlighted how Apple was still able to collect data about iPhone users through their use of Apple apps, giving the Cupertino, California-based company an unfair advantage over other apps when it sells targeted ads in its own App Store. It is on this last point that the authority said it would continue the investigation.

In her press conference, Ms De Silva said dominant companies have the right to set rules for their services, as long as those rules are not anti-competitive or unfairly applied.

“We will be very vigilant,” said Mrs. de Silva.

Write to Sam Schechner at [email protected]