Germany: Federal Cartel Office announced preliminary findings following investigation into Apple's App Tracking Transparency Framework

On 13 February 2025, the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) published its preliminary assessment of Apple's App Tracking Transparency Framework (ATTF), raising concerns that it imposes stricter data access restrictions on third-party applications while exempting Apple's own services. This finding follows a three-year investigation into ATTF, a feature designed to allow users to block advertisers from tracking them across different applications. The FCO asserts that this self-preferencing may constitute a violation of competition law, as Apple's own advertising services could gain an unfair advantage by accessing user data within its ecosystem without being subject to the same consent requirements. Apple now has the opportunity to address these allegations, while the FCO, in close cooperation with the European Commission and other national regulators, continues its investigation.