Apple facing $2.7 billion UK lawsuit over 'unfair' app tracking rules

LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Apple is facing a £2 billion ($2.7 billion) London lawsuit brought on behalf of app developers over its app tracking rules, with the iPhone maker accused of abusing its power to unfairly impose greater restrictions on third parties.

The lawsuit, filed at London's Competition Appeal Tribunal on Thursday, follows years of regulatory scrutiny over Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature, which was launched in 2021.

Apple has said it introduced that feature to allow users to control whether to grant apps permission to track their activity across other companies' apps and websites.

Lawyers bringing the new lawsuit against Apple, though, say the feature imposed stricter requirements on third-party app developers than on Apple's own services, giving its advertising ecosystem a competitive advantage.

Ann Pope, a former senior official with Britain's Competition and Markets Authority who is leading the lawsuit, said Apple's policy "resulted in very significant harm to businesses that depend on Apple as a gatekeeper".

"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 said its App Tracking Transparency was created "to give users a simple way to control whether apps have permission to track their activity", adding that it was "bound by the exact same requirements as all developers".

Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature has been the subject of investigations across Europe, in particular in Germany where Apple last month agreed changes to rules on how app developers can use personal data for targeted advertising.

The German competition authority had accused Apple of abusing its market power, after Facebook-owner Meta plus publishers, advertisers and app developers – whose business models rely on advertising tracking – criticised the tool.

Regulators in France, Italy, Poland and elsewhere have also probed the App Tracking Transparency framework.

($1 = 0.7412 pounds)

(Reporting by Sam Tobin;Editing by Alison Williams)