Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has launched an investigation into the change in privacy and personal data rules on Apple devices.
In a statement Monday (Dec. 13), the anticompetition watchdog said the change under review relates to the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy that requires app developers to seek iPhone users’ permission to track their activity for ad targeting.
UOKiK said that even though the privacy settings changes are meant to have reduced the ability of third-party apps to gather personal information on iOS users in order to send them personalized ads, there is no guarantee that the personal data is no longer being collected. It also questioned whether the rules were rather designed to promote the company’s own advertising service, Apple Search Ads.
“The actions of digital giants are a challenge for antitrust authorities all around the world,” said UOKiK President Tomasz Chróstny in the statement. “During the course of our investigation, we want to examine whether Apple’s actions may be aimed at eliminating competitors in the market for personalized advertising services, the objective being to better sell their own service. We will investigate whether this is a case of exclusionary abuse of market power.”
Rolled out in April of this year, the ATT policy makes it so that apps must ask for permission before tracking user activity and sending out personalized ads. Many users have chosen to disable the feature since then, making it difficult for advertisers to target users.
See also: Data Privacy Day Coincides With Apple’s Ad Tracking Changes
In October, the revenues of several social media platforms, including Snap, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, had been severely affected by the privacy upgrades, resulting in a combined loss in revenue of close to $10 billion.
Read more: Social Media Firms May See $10B Loss in Sales From Apple Changes
Elsewhere, the Cupertino behemoth is challenging antitrust action taken by Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) on alternative app payments (APP) after the country’s watchdog demanded that iOS developers tell customers about alternatives to Apple’s in-app payment option.
See more: Russia’s Watchdog Investigates Apple for Anti-Competition Practices
This is not the first time this year Apple is clashing with the anti-monopoly authority. In April, the tech giant was slapped with a $12 million fine for abusing its App Store dominance and unfairly cracking down on third-party parental control apps.
That fine, however, pales in comparison to the 200 million euros (about $225 million) in fines slammed on the iPhone giant and Amazon by Italy’s antitrust watchdog for alleged anti-competitive cooperation related to the sales of Apple and Beats products.
Read more: Italian Antitrust Authority Fines Amazon and Apple $225M+
According to Italian Competition Authority (ICA) officials, the arrangement violated European Union rules and affected competition on prices.
The fines, which both companies plan to appeal, are linked to a 2018 deal between the two technology firms limiting which resellers could sell Apple and Beats products on Amazon.it.
On the upside for Apple, the tech giant inched closer to reaching $3 trillion in market value today, driven by a 1% increase in Apple Inc. shares on the Nasdaq. Reaching the $3 trillion milestone would make Apple as large as the world’s fifth-largest economy behind Germany.
See more: Apple Closes in on $3T Valuation
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