After Google, Facebook and Amazon, the German Federal Cartel Office is also scrutinizing the technology group Apple. The Cupertino, California-based company “has a dominant position across the entire market,” the cartel bureau’s head, Andreas Mundt, said in Bonn on Wednesday. That is why the American group falls under the so-called extensive abuse control.
Mundt emphasized the special interplay of the various Apple products such as the iPhone, the iOS operating system and the App Store. In this way, the group operates a “comprehensive digital ecosystem that is of great competitive importance not only in Germany, but also in Europe and worldwide”. Actions harmful to competition would be “targeted” in the future and prevented if necessary.
It’s about tracking users
In one specific case, the Cartel Bureau is investigating Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Framework. This links user behavior tracking for third-party apps to certain requirements and is especially important for app providers whose offerings are funded by advertising. “The Bundeskartellamt is particularly investigating the initial suspicion that these rules give preferential treatment to Apple’s own offerings,” the authority said.
In Germany, new regulations in competition law have been in force since the beginning of 2021. A central element is the modernization of the abuse control – the regulators can now intervene earlier in violations by large digital groups and prohibit anti-competitive practices.
The cartel agency had previously determined a so-called “outstanding cross-market competitive interest” for Google parent company Alphabet and Facebook parent company Meta. The American group Amazon went to the German Federal Court against a corresponding classification. A decision is still pending for the American software group Microsoft.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
