A £2 billion ($2.7 billion) class-action lawsuit has been filed against Apple in London, accusing the technology giant of exploiting its market dominance through "unfair and discriminatory" app tracking rules.
The case, filed on behalf of app developers, alleges that Apple abused its market power by imposing additional restrictions on third-party developers, according to a Reuters report.
The lawsuit was filed on Thursday at London's Competition Appeal Tribunal and centres on Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, which was introduced in 2021 and has faced years of regulatory scrutiny.
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Apple has said the purpose of the feature is to give users the choice of whether to allow apps to track their activity across other companies' apps and websites.
However, lawyers behind the complaint argue that the framework gave Apple's advertising ecosystem a competitive advantage by imposing stricter requirements on third-party app developers than on Apple's own services.
Apple's approach "resulted in very significant harm to businesses that depend on Apple as a gatekeeper," said Ann Pope, a former senior official at Britain's Competition and Markets Authority who is leading the complaint.
"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," Pope said in a statement.
Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework has also faced scrutiny elsewhere in Europe. In Germany, Apple recently agreed to make changes to its rules governing how app developers can use personal data for targeted advertising.
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The framework has drawn criticism from Facebook-owner Meta, as well as publishers, advertisers and app developers whose business models rely on advertising tracking.
German competition authorities have also scrutinised whether Apple's approach to ATT could amount to an abuse of its market power.
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