App Developers File £2bn UK Claim Against Apple Over App Tracking Transparency Rules
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The Facts
- App developers filed a £2 billion ($2.7 billion) claim against Apple at London's Competition Appeal Tribunal on Sept. 3.
- The claim targets App Tracking Transparency (ATT), a feature Apple launched in 2021.
- ATT requires apps to obtain user permission through a prompt before tracking activity across other companies' apps and websites.
- The claimants say ATT imposed stricter requirements on third-party developers than on Apple's own services.
- Apple says its own services are bound by the same ATT requirements as all developers, and denies the claims.
- Ann Pope, a former senior official at Britain's Competition and Markets Authority, is leading the claim.
- The law firm Hausfeld filed the claim at the tribunal.
- Apple agreed last month to change German rules on how app developers use personal data for targeted advertising.
Context
What is App Tracking Transparency?
ATT is a system Apple introduced in 2021 that requires apps to ask for a user's permission through a pop-up before tracking their activity across other companies' apps and websites Yahoo! Finance,CNA. If a user declines, the app loses access to the information about that user that enables targeted advertising Yahoo! Finance.
What do the claimants and Apple each say?
Lawyers for the developers say ATT held third-party apps to tougher consent standards than Apple applied to its own advertising and data-collection operations, giving Apple's ad business a competitive advantage Quartz,theepochtimes.com. Pope said the policy "resulted in very significant harm to businesses that depend on Apple as a gatekeeper" Hindustan Times,oe24. Apple says ATT was created to give users a simple way to control tracking and that it is bound by the same requirements as all developers Star ,Yahoo! Finance.
Is ATT under scrutiny outside the UK?
Yes. Sources report ATT has drawn regulatory attention in several European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Poland Yahoo! Finance,Yahoo! Finance. In Germany, Apple agreed last month to changes to rules governing how app developers can use personal data for targeted advertising Ambito,Yahoo! Finance.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
Left and right largely agree on this one.
- Where Left and Right agree
- Both read the £2 billion claim as legitimate: Apple owes proof that its own services face the same 2021 tracking-prompt requirements as third-party developers.
- Where Left and Right differ in emphasis
- Both demand one standard; the warrant differs: a rule-writer over dependent developers isn't neutral, versus the bargain independent firms accept when building on someone's platform.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is empirical, not moral: both sides accept one written rule can bind everyone, and disagree over whether a firm that authors the prompt and sells ads under it can carry the same burden — a question facts about ATT's text cannot settle.
- Watch for
- The tribunal's handling of ATT Collective Action Limited's core "double consent" allegation — whether Apple's own first-party apps require permission twice, as third-party apps do — turns the dispute into a checkable finding.Silicon Republic, Cryptopolitan
How left and right read it
A platform that writes the tracking rules for everyone who depends on it, including its own services, is not a neutral referee — which is why the £2 billion claim over the 2021 permission prompt matters. Apple denies it. But the allegation is that third-party developers faced stricter requirements than Apple's own services, so the burden belongs on Apple to prove equal treatment, not on the developers living under its rules.
Rules must bind the rule-maker as tightly as the ruled — that is the basis on which independent firms agree to build on someone else's platform. Apple denies the £2 billion claim that its 2021 tracking prompt held third-party developers to stricter consent requirements than its own services, yet it agreed last month to change German rules on how developers use personal data for targeted advertising. One standard, or two?
The receipts — all 75 sources
Wire services (4)
Independent coverage (50)
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