Targeted advertising: no urgent interim measures against Apple but the Autorité continues to investigate into the merits of the case

Following the referral from several associations representing various players of the online advertising sector and contesting practices implemented by Apple on the occasion of upcoming changes to its iOS 14 operating system, the Autorité rejects the request for interim measures but continues the investigation into the merits of the case.

More specifically, the issue was the mandatory introduction of the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) solicitation for applications on iOS that would like to monitor the user activity on third party websites.

The Autorité considers, at this stage, that the introduction of the ATT solicitation does not appear to reflect an abuse of a dominant position on the part of Apple, leading to imposing unfair trading conditions to application developers.

The investigation into the merits of the case will however make it possible to ensure that this process does not constitute an anticompetitive practice, in particular in that it would reflect a form of discrimination or "self-preferencing" on Apple's part.