Being a staggeringly successful big tech company does have some downsides: Apple has lost an appeal against a special abuse control regime that Germany’s competition watchdog applied to it last year. The iPhone maker can expect to continue to face bespoke competition controls in a major European market, in addition to other similar laws (such as the EU’s DMA).
On Tuesday, Reuters reported the ruling by Germany’s Federal Court of Justice that has affirmed the five-year regulatory designation on Apple that the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) applied to it in April 2023. The special abuse controls regime is intended to help level the competitive playing field against digital giants.
Last month, the FCO said it suspects that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework amounts to self preferencing, which is banned under the regime. So Apple could end up being forced to apply equal treatment to its own data collection for ads that its platform demands on third-party apps through permission pop-ups.
Reached for comment on the failure of its legal challenge, Apple emailed us a statement disagreeing with the court decision, which also continues to claim the company faces “fierce competition in Germany.”
“Apple is proud to be an engine for innovation, job creation, and competition in every market where we operate,” the statement added. “We disagree with the FCJ’s decision today to uphold the FCO’s designation, which discounts the value of a business model that puts user privacy and security at its core.”
Apple is not the only tech giant that’s subject to the FCO’s special abuse controls: Google, Meta, and Microsoft are also members of this elite club.
