France is considering antitrust action against Apple

Thank you, Mr. Air, a netizen of CTOnews.com, for your clue delivery! CTOnews.com, April 11 (Xinhua)-- according to US news website Axios, the French Competition Agency is likely to launch an antitrust investigation into Apple soon, involving previous complaints about policy changes in Apple's app tracking.

Sources told the Axios that French regulators were inclined to issue a formal "statement of objection" to all parties involved in the matter in the coming weeks. The official French investigation will mark the first major move by the government against Apple around the world.

The 2020 complaint argued that changes in Apple's app tracking policy did not fully comply with EU privacy rules and that Apple did not require itself to follow the same advertising positioning standards it imposed on competitors because it used ads from app tracking data to target iOS users.

In March 2020, Apple was fined 1.1 billion euros (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 8.239 billion yuan) in an antitrust case in France on the grounds of anti-competitive behavior in its distribution network. The French General Administration of Competition alleges that some aspects of its sales and distribution practices violate French competition law, which the company denies.

Also worth mentioning, the French Competition, Consumer and Anti-Fraud Agency (DGCCRF) said earlier this year that Apple agreed to pay a fine of 25 million euros (currently about 187 million yuan) because failure to notify iPhone users to update their operating system could slow down the device.