Way clear for Apple bans

The Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) is authorized to deal more strictly with the US tech giant Apple than before. The Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) gave the authority a boost on Tuesday by ruling that the company has "outstanding cross-market significance for competition." The Cartel Office itself had ruled this in April 2023 and has now received judicial confirmation. This allows it to prohibit certain Apple practices that endanger fair competition in the market.

For example, the Federal Cartel Office has been reviewing Apple's tracking regulations for third-party apps since June 2022. When using such applications, Apple users currently have to explicitly consent to the collection of information about their behavior for advertising purposes. This does not apply to Apple's own apps. This gives the company greater access to data.

Other practices that have been criticized include the exclusive pre-installation of Apple's own apps and the requirement to use the company's own operating system on Apple devices. The suspicion is that Apple favors its own offerings and hinders other companies.

Since a 2021 reform of the Act against Restraints of Competition, the Federal Cartel Office has been able to take action against large digital corporations more easily. The corresponding procedure consists of two stages. First, it must be determined whether a company is significant for competition across multiple market segments. Various criteria are used for this, such as dominant positions in various markets, financial strength, access to competition-relevant data, and influence on the business activities of other companies. Only in the second step can practices that endanger competition be prohibited.

And what does this mean for my Apple usage?

Apple is one of the world's largest corporations in terms of revenue and profit. Apple employs approximately 150,000 people and has acquired well over 50 companies over the past ten years. Among other things, the company manufactures devices, develops operating systems and other software, and operates its own app store – thus, it "operates to a significant extent in multi-sided markets," as stated in the verdict on Tuesday.

What will change in practice? Apple users won't notice the court's decision directly, said lawyer Kathrin Westermann, an antitrust expert at the law firm Noerr, to the taz newspaper. In the ongoing proceedings regarding the tracking regulations, Apple will likely attempt to prove to the Federal Cartel Office that competitors are not being hindered or that Apple's behavior is at least objectively justified. Therefore, concrete decisions from the authority are likely to take some time.