IAB France, Others Bring Antitrust Complaint In EU Against Apple Over Privacy

Business groups including the Interactive Advertising Bureau France have filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in Europe over planned privacy settings that will require consumers to opt in to tracking on an app-by-app basis.

“While privacy matters and needs to be protected, privacy rhetoric cannot be used as a fig leaf to justify anti-competitive practices that will destroy the mobile ad ecosystem while benefiting Apple,” Damien Geradin, the lawyer who represents the complainants, said on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.

The complaint itself wasn't publicly available on Wednesday afternoon, and the identities of all the groups who brought the complaint aren't yet known, but Geradin said on Twitter that IAB France was among the complainants. 

The ad industry opposes Apple's plans, arguing that requiring consumers to opt-in to tracking on an app-by-app basis will deprive companies of revenue.

Ad industry groups in the U.S. recently requested an “urgent” meeting with Apple over iOS14's new settings, currently slated to roll out next year. The system will will inform consumers when an app wants to track them for ad purposes, and will ask people to either allow or prohibit tracking by that app.

Also in the U.S., the operator of the Daily Mail raised antitrust concerns about Apple's privacy plans with the Justice Department, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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