The Bundeskartellamt, Germany's competition authority, has issued a preliminary legal assessment regarding Apple's App Tracking Transparency Framework (ATTF), which was implemented in April 2021. The ATTF requires app providers in the iOS App Store to obtain user consent before accessing certain data for advertising purposes. However, the authority notes that these stringent requirements apply only to third-party app providers and not to Apple, raising potential concerns of unequal treatment under competition law.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt, highlighted that Apple operates a vast digital ecosystem that allows it extensive access to user data, which it uses for personalized advertising in its App Store. This creates a competitive disadvantage for other app publishers, particularly those who do not have access to similar user data. The authority is questioning whether Apple's stricter criteria for third-party providers could be seen as self-preferencing, which is prohibited under competition law.

In April 2023, the Bundeskartellamt had already determined that Apple holds paramount significance for competition across markets, subjecting it to extended abuse control. Apple has appealed this decision, which is still pending. The ATTF's design, which differentiates between Apple's own apps and third-party apps in terms of consent dialogues, is a focal point of the authority's concerns.

The Bundeskartellamt's preliminary view identifies three main issues with the ATTF: the definition of tracking that excludes Apple's own data practices, the disparity in the number of consent dialogues presented to users, and the design of these dialogues that appears to favor Apple's own apps. The authority is conducting this investigation in collaboration with the European Commission and other national competition agencies.