A French court has ordered Apple to pay around 39 million euros (US$45 million) to mobile network operators over accusations it imposed unfair contract conditions to allow them to sell iPhones, reports AFP News.
The Paris commercial court also fined Apple eight million euros in its ruling, issued earlier this month. Apple told AFP it would appeal the ruling, which concerns its contracts with France’s main mobile network operators more than a decade ago.
The court took issue with clauses that required operators to sell a certain number of iPhones and fixed their retail prices. AFP says that Apple also oversaw the use of its products and trademarks in advertising by the operators, and used the patents of the operators free of charge and without any reciprocity, according to the ruling.
The court voided the clauses in question. Since the appeal doesn’t suspend the application of the ruling, Apple will have to transfer the sums awarded to three of France’s four mobile network operators: Bouygues Telecom, Free and SFR.
This isn’t Apple’s first legal issue in France. For instance, France’s Authorite de la Concurrence says Apple can continue to its App Tracking Transparency tool in the country — but has to pay a fine.
The government agency has been hit with an 150 million euro (about US$162.4 million) fine by France’s competition authority for abusing its dominant position in mobile app advertising on its devices via the privacy control tool. However, the Authorite de la Concurrence hasn’t required Apple to change anything about its ATT tool, which seems kind of weird.
“While the objective pursued by ATT is not in itself open to criticism, the way it is implemented is neither necessary nor proportionate to Apple’s stated objective of protecting personal data,” the regulator said in a statement. Reuters says that the Authorite de la Concurrence added that Apple’s ATT “particularly penalized smaller publishers,” arguing that the ability to use tracking data was more crucial for these publishers than larger ones.
Apple introduced the App Tracking Transparency Framework for third-party apps with its updates iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5 and tvOS 14.5 in April 2021. ATT allows you to choose whether an app can track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites for the purposes of advertising or sharing with data brokers. Starting with iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, apps must ask for permission before tracking your activity across other companies’ apps and websites.
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