Apple sued for £2 billion in UK over alleged 'unfair' app tracking privacy rules

London: Apple is facing a 2 billion pound (2.7 billion US dollars) class action lawsuit brought on Thursday by UK app developers, who accuse the American technology company of giving its own advertising platform an unfair edge by applying stricter privacy rules to third-party rivals.

The claim, lodged with the Competition Appeal Tribunal by law firm Hausfeld, focuses on Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, which has drawn regulatory scrutiny across several European jurisdictions.

Rolled out by Apple in 2021, the feature mandates that applications obtain explicit user permission via a pop-up prompt before tracking user activity across third-party apps and websites.

Should a user opt out, the application is blocked from accessing data required to deliver targeted advertisements.

The claimants contend 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."

The move left "UK app developers unable to adapt their business models in time to avoid significant losses," Hausfeld stated in a press release.

Regulatory bodies in France, Germany, Italy, Romania, and Poland have launched parallel inquiries into the ATT system, which Apple markets as a consumer privacy feature.

"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 leading the lawsuit.

Apple incurred penalties of 150 million euros in France last year and nearly 100 million euros in Italy over related antitrust concerns.

An Apple representative told AFP that the tool was developed "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 Cupertino-based firm denies the claims set out in the action.

AFP