Apple Loses Appeal Against German Regulatory Controls

[MacRumors]

Apple on Tuesday lost its appeal in Germany's Federal Court of Justice against a regulatory assessment that subjects the company to heightened antitrust scrutiny in the country (via Reuters).

The German court ruled that the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) was correct in its April 2023 decision to classify Apple under the "extended abuse control" regime of the country's Competition Act. The designation gives German authorities expanded powers to intervene against potential anti-competitive practices by Apple.

The judges affirmed that Apple's economic position across markets meets the threshold for increased oversight, citing the company's extensive financial resources and vertically integrated ecosystem. "The products and services that Apple offers are highly vertically integrated, closely interconnected and largely reserved for users of Apple devices," the court stated. "This is the basis for what the company itself calls the Apple ecosystem."

German regulators had argued that Apple's two billion device active install base gives it a "strong power" to create rules for third parties, and allows Apple to exert control over customers and access to those customers.

Apple contested the decision and claimed that the FCO misrepresented the competitive landscape it faces in Germany. In a statement, Apple said the ruling "discounts the value of a business model that puts user privacy and security at its core."

The extended abuse control designation remains valid for five years and joins Apple with other tech giants including Google, Meta, and Amazon that are already subject to special controls in Germany.

The FCO is currently investigating Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework, which requires apps to get explicit user consent before tracking them. Regulators are examining whether this privacy feature acts as a form of self-preferencing by Apple.

FCO president Andreas Mundt welcomed the ruling: "This means that the highest court has confirmed that Apple is subject to stricter abuse control," he said. "Our ongoing review of Apple's tracking regulation for third-party apps is therefore on a solid footing."

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Loses Appeal Against German Regulatory Controls

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Apple: “Hey we’ve got this phone we want to release.
Regulators: “Follow these rules and you’re ok”
Apple: “We’ve got this App Store we want to release for our phones”
Regulators: “Follow these rules, same rules for everyone that operates an App Store, and you’re ok”

time passes…

Regulators: “Hey, you know that thing we said is ok and that we still allow other companies to do? Well, we’ve decided that YOU aren’t allowed to do the thing other companies are still doing. Where did you get the idea that was ok?”
Apple: “Literally from you”
Regulators: “Well that’s obviously because we didn’t know you were planning to be successful. Nowhere in your previous statements did you let on that your plan was to be successful. And this whole ‘making products our citizens want to buy?’ You said absolutely NOTHING about that. Had we known that you were going to make things people want, we would never have approved any of this! You should have kept to selling less than 1000 phones a year like the EU phone manufacturers. THEN you wouldn’t be in this position.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

What does this mean?:

"The FCO is currently investigating Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework, which requires apps to get explicit user consent before tracking them. Regulators are examining whether this privacy feature might constitute self-preferencing by Apple."

Are they saying that by giving users control over what apps track them, that this somehow gives Apple an anti-competitive advantage, or that Apple's own apps don't ask users to give similar consent to tracking?

 

[UnbreakableAlex]

Apple should open iOS & macOS for other manufacturers. Let’s see how many people are willing to pay 250€ per upgrade step of ram and SSD then.

 

[gleepskip]

Late-stage bureaucracy gonna bureaucracy.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Late-stage bureaucracy gonna bureaucracy.

Not sure it's in its late stage

 

[Plutonius]

If you are smaller and not making much money, does that mean that it's not worth looking for abuses ?

It sounds like their enforcement level is dependent on what fines they can get.

 

[0049190]

Given what’s going on in America and China, the Europeans need to invest significantly to build and grow their own tech companies.

 

[surferfb]

European regulators clearly think integrated business models ought to be illegal. To the point that the Germans apparently are investigating whether or not protecting Apple users’ privacy is unfair competition

 

[surferfb]

Late-stage bureaucracy gonna bureaucracy.

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And they wonder why there isn’t a vibrant tech industry in Europe.

 

[SanderEvers]

Honestly the EU does innovate..

Thanks to the EU we have bottle caps that stay attached to the bottle.

 

[SanderEvers]

Given what’s going on in America and China, the Europeans need to invest significantly to build and grow their own tech companies.

We had one, but we sold it to Microsoft. (Nokia)

 

[I7guy]

Hmm. So apples world wide active user base is the reason for the expanded power in Germany? Seems like government rational is getting crazier and crazier.

 

[Big_D]

What does this mean?:

"The FCO is currently investigating Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework, which requires apps to get explicit user consent before tracking them. Regulators are examining whether this privacy feature might constitute self-preferencing by Apple."

Are they saying that by giving users control over what apps track them, that this somehow gives Apple an anti-competitive advantage, or that Apple's own apps don't ask users to give similar consent to tracking?

If their own apps aren't also controlled the same way, yes.

 

[0049190]

Honestly the EU does innovate..

View attachment 2493374

Thanks to the EU we have bottle caps that stay attached to the bottle.

Everyone hates those attached bottle tops but this is nothing to do with regulation, it’s about reducing plastic waste as those tops are now recyclable.

 

[0049190]

We had one, but we sold it to Microsoft. (Nokia)

And they killed it. That takeover should have been blocked.

 

[Big_D]

Everyone hates those attached bottle tops but this is nothing to do with regulation, it’s about reducing plastic waste as those tops are now recyclable.

I like the attached bottle caps, you can't lose them, when you are out and about.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Honestly the EU does innovate..

View attachment 2493374

Thanks to the EU we have bottle caps that stay attached to the bottle.

You need a better picture. That robot is about as real as Half Life 3.

 

[Hopefully Smarter]

Good. They are in the wrong.

 

[MacAndMic]

This reads to me like Germany doesn't like that a user has the ability to choose whether or not to be tracked. Is that a government choice? or do they consider Apple as being anti-competitive because app makers lose the tracking ability, and it hits their bottom line?

 

[danakin]

Patiently waiting for the first Mensa member to suggest Apple shout abandon the German market.

 

[Big_D]

This reads to me like Germany doesn't like that a user has the ability to choose whether or not to be tracked. Is that a government choice? or do they consider Apple as being anti-competitive because app makers lose the tracking ability, and it hits their bottom line?

No, this is the fact that the internal Apple apps don't have to follow the same standards. This simplest thing for Apple to do would be to have the Apple apps turn up in the lists, with the tracking options turned off and the slider disabled, job done.

 

[platinumaqua]

What does this mean?:

"The FCO is currently investigating Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework, which requires apps to get explicit user consent before tracking them. Regulators are examining whether this privacy feature might constitute self-preferencing by Apple."

Are they saying that by giving users control over what apps track them, that this somehow gives Apple an anti-competitive advantage, or that Apple's own apps don't ask users to give similar consent to tracking?

More likely the latter. Modern Apple apps are very chatty to Apple according to pihole logs and they can't be turned off

 

[JapanApple]

More of these stories they’re gonna land up turning in the favor of Apple later.

 

[MaximizedAction]

Honestly the EU does innovate..

View attachment 2493374

Thanks to the EU we have bottle caps that stay attached to the bottle.

That’s a nice anti-european "meme".

The American invention is by a company whose boss likes to do archaic salutes on stage, and the Chinese ones are just male fantasies.

European regulations aren’t always well thought through, but at least they aren’t handing everything over to technocrats for them to later hurt the people, as currently on display in the inventive USA.