Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy feature has a marked effect on businesses such as Facebook, and now German regulators will examine whether it is anti-competitive.
ATT has reportedly caused a 15% to 20% drop in revenue for advertisers, and most notably was blamed by Facebook in an announcement about a hiring freeze. Now the Bundeskartellamt, Germany's Federal Cartel Office, is to investigate Apple's feature.
"We welcome business models which use data carefully and give users choice as to how their data are used," said Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt, in a statement. "A corporation like Apple which is in a position to unilaterally set rules for its ecosystem, in particular for its app store, should make pro-competitive rules."
"[However, we] have reason to doubt that this is the case when we see that Apple's rules apply to third parties, but not to Apple itself," continued Mundt. "This would allow Apple to give preference to its own offers or impede other companies."
The Bundeskartellamt says that Apple's rules seeming "do not affect Apple when using and combining data for personalized advertising." The regulator reports that its preliminary findings "indicate that Apple is not subject to the new and additional rules" of ATT.
This investigation comes as the Federal Cartel Office continues its examination of alleged anti-trust issues concerning the App Store.
