Apple adjusts app tracking in the EU after antitrust criticism

After criticism from competition watchdogs, the US company Apple is adjusting the query for app tracking on iPhones in the European Union. The change ends an investigation into the function by the Federal Cartel Office. “Apple will now significantly align user queries and give third-party app providers more opportunities to meaningfully combine the necessary queries,” said the head of the Bonn authority, Andreas Mundt.

In addition to the antitrust authorities, there was also criticism from the advertising industry. Apple points out that users have a right to data protection.

One of the changes is that the word “tracking” no longer appears on the selection page. App operators also have the opportunity to ask users again after a year for permission to track their activity on other applications and websites. The placement of the buttons for rejecting or allowing should also be swapped so that the “Allow” option will come first in the future.

The Cartel Office criticized unequal treatment

The new version of the query will only be displayed to users in the EU. The country of origin of the device in question does not matter. According to Apple, there is an exception in Poland, where there is a different schedule.

The Federal Cartel Office's criticism of the function was aimed at possible unequal treatment of apps from the Apple Group and programs from external companies. The authority came to this preliminary assessment in February 2025. The Federal Cartel Office criticized at the time that the rules did not prevent the company itself from combining data from the App Store, the Apple ID or from connected devices and using it for advertising purposes. The company pointed out that its own apps would not collect data in the applications of other providers.

Proceedings in other EU countries are also being settled

The Federal Cartel Office has now announced that Apple is aligning the query windows for its own offers and apps from other providers much more closely. This eliminated “off-putting symbols and wording in the query specified by Apple for third-party providers.” The query windows would be “designed to be neutral in terms of content, language and appearance”. App publishers and content providers would also have more space to explain the importance of personalized advertising for their model.