France puts Apple a fine for making advertisers difficult. The problem of the fine is that it is symbolic

Apple It has been fined with 150 million euros By the Fancesa regulatory authority, I authorized her in the concurrence. The sanction is due to its dominant position between 2021 and 2023 in the advertising segment in mobile applications.

It is the first fine that an antimonopoly regulator issues Apple by the call Tracking transparency app (ATT). This technology is supposed to prevent apps from tracking us more than the account.

In iPhone and iPad ATT it allows users to decide which apps can monitor their activity. However the system has been criticized by advertisers And for Apple’s rivals –With Facebook as a great example-, to which it harms by depending on that online advertising.

In fact, the investigation that has ended up causing this fine comes from the complaints of Several online advertisers associations and also of Internet suppliers who accused Apple of abusing their privileged position.

The French regulatory entity indicated in a statement that “although the objective pursued by ATT is not critical in itself, the way in which it applies It is not necessary or provided to the declared objective of Apple to protect personal data. “

In fact, the statement also stood out as ATT “particularly penalizes small advertisers”, who depend largely on third -party data for their business.

The fine, of course, is much smaller than the European Union imposed on Apple last year for Spotify demand for “limiting options and drowning innovation.” Then The fine was 1.8 billion euros.

Apple has indicated that it was disappointed with the fine, and that the French regulator has not specified what changes should make for its privacy control tool. The ATT system is also being investigated by the regulatory entities of Germany.

The fine, as we say, is almost symbolic, especially if we compare it with what the EU imposed last year. Even so, this could return to Increase existing tensions with Donald Trump’s governmentwhich in recent weeks has begun to launch tariffs that raise a global commercial war and that of course They significantly affect Europe.

Image | Anthony Choren | La Moncloa

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