Facebook, Axel Springer launch antitrust complaint against Apple in Germany

Nine industry associations lodged the complaint with Germany’s competition regulator, according to the Financial Times. The companies involved included Facebook and Axel Springer, the latter of which publishes Germany’s Bild and Die Welt newspapers.

The move was been prompted by Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency feature, a part of the latest operating system update, iOS 14.5. The feature, which could be rolled out as early as Monday, forces apps to ask permission from users to track them for advertising purposes.

Apple said the move will better protect customer privacy, but with most users expected to opt out, the complaint predicts it will cause app developers’ advertising revenues to fall by as much as 60%, the FT reported.

A similar complaint about the feature has already been filed in France.

Thomas Hoppner, from law firm Hausfeld, which is representing the German complainants, said: “Consumers will be harmed by higher transaction costs. If the relevance of the ads decreases, consumers will have to spend more time searching to find offerings that are relevant to them,” the FT reported.

Apple has yet to comment on the German complaint.

However, it has previously said of the French complaint that privacy was a "fundamental human right" and that it was giving users the choice about whether or not they want apps to track them. "The rules apply equally to all developers, including Apple, and we have received strong support from regulators and privacy advocates for this new feature," it said in a statement in 2020.