Apple will allow developers in five European Union countries to replace its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) pop-up with a redesigned, less intrusive version, following a multi-year antitrust investigation by Germany’s federal competition regulator.
What changed?
Apple has agreed to update its app requirements for requesting user consent to track activity across other apps or websites, following new agreements with select European competition authorities. The consent prompt will remain and appear at the same time. Still, developers can now use an alternative screen with revised formatting, language, and an optional link explaining why permission is requested.
Apple’s changes, more than half a dozen in total, include:
- Displaying the prompt as a full-page screen rather than a pop-up
- Dropping the word “track” from the prompt’s language
- Replacing “Allow” / “Ask App Not to Track” with a straighter “Allow” / “Reject” choice
- Updated colors and formatting
- A clickable link where developers can explain what data they collect and why
Apple will now allow developers to re-prompt EU users once a year after their previous choice, which was not previously permitted. Due to country-specific legal requirements, the alternative prompt will apply only to apps distributed in Germany, France, Italy, Poland, and Romania, rather than the entire EU.
Why did regulators intervene?
The case arises from findings that ATT favored Apple over third-party apps, as Apple permits its own apps to access consumer data from its ecosystem without displaying a consent screen. In contrast, third-party developers must present the ATT prompt to collect similar data.
Why this matters to app revenue
Consent design has significant financial implications. Most users decline tracking on consent screens, which reduces revenue for ad-supported businesses like Meta and benefits Apple’s advertising business. Developers rely on this data for personalized advertising, so the wording, structure, and ease of the prompt directly impact third-party app revenue.
Apple maintains that consent screens protect user privacy, even though it allows its own apps to run personalized ads using data collected within its ecosystem. Regulators have identified this asymmetry as anticompetitive.
The regulatory road to Apple’s ATT settlement
Germany’s Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) began investigating Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework in June 2022, raising concerns that Apple’s tracking rules were anti-competitive and favored its own apps. In February 2025, the FCO issued preliminary findings that Apple was not treating third-party developers equally and highlighted potential self-preferencing, which Apple has been prohibited from since April 2023 under Germany’s abuse-control regime and the EU Digital Markets Act. After a formal market test of Apple’s proposed remedies in December 2025, the FCO made Apple’s commitments legally binding and closed the investigation on August 17, 2026. The agreement includes independent monitoring for seven years and a four-month implementation period. This settlement also addresses related regulatory actions in France and Italy, where Apple faced significant fines over similar tracking issues, resolving a broader regulatory challenge rather than an isolated case.
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