Apple faces £2 bn lawsuit in UK over app privacy feature

Apple faces a £2 billion ($2.7 billion) lawsuit brought by UK app developers who accused Thursday the US tech giant of giving its own advertising services an unfair advantage by imposing tougher privacy rules on third parties.

The claim, filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal by law firm Hausfeld, centres on Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) system, which has also come under scrutiny in several European countries.

The feature, introduced by Apple in 2021, requires apps to obtain user consent through a pop-up window before tracking their activity across other apps and websites.

If they decline, the app loses access to information on that user which enables targeted ads.

The claimants argue that the system was "designed and implemented unfairly and without proper consultation, imposing stricter requirements on third-party app developers than on its own services."

That left "UK app developers unable to adapt their business models in time to avoid significant losses," according to a statement by Hausfeld.

Authorities in France, Germany, Italy, Romania and Poland have opened similar probes over ATT, which Apple promotes as a privacy safeguard.

"This action is important to protect the rights of British businesses that depend on Apple, to ensure that the rules that Apple applies are fair, and to compensate the losses that British companies have suffered," said Ann Pope, a former official at the Competition and Markets Authority, who brought the claim.

Apple was fined 150 million euros last year in France and nearly 100 million euros in Italy in similar cases.

An Apple spokesperson told AFP the feature was created "to give users a simple way to control whether apps have permission to track their activity across other companies’ apps and websites."

"Apple is bound by the exact same requirements as all developers under ATT, and this feature has been embraced by our customers and praised by privacy advocates," the spokesperson added.

The company disputes the allegations made in the claim.