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The German antitrust authority has charged Apple with abusing its market power through its app tracking tool and giving itself preferential treatment in a move that could result in daily fines for the iPhone maker if it fails to change its business practices. The move follows a three-year investigation by the Federal Cartel Office into Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature, which allows users to block advertisers from tracking them across different applications. The U.S. tech giant has said the feature allows users to control their privacy but has drawn criticism from Meta Platforms, app developers and startups whose business models rely on advertising tracking. “The ATTF (app tracking tool) makes it far more difficult for competing app publishers to access the user data relevant for advertising,” Andreas Mundt, cartel office president, said in a statement. Apple defended the feature in an emailed statement to Reuters, adding that it “holds itself to a higher standard than it requires of any third-party developer.” “We will continue to constructively engage with the Federal Cartel Office to ensure users continue to have transparency and control over their data,” it added. Apple will be required to address the concerns set out in the German charge sheet or risk further proceedings and daily fines if it fails to do so by the time of a final ruling which could come this year but is more likely to land next year. The case was triggered by complaints from associations representing publishers, broadcasters, advertisers, their agencies and ad tech firms. “Today’s charges are groundbreaking. Apple’s measures had created an artificial opacity in its ecosystem that led to less choice, higher costs for apps, and less protection against ad fraud, all while boosting Apple’s revenues from services,” said Thomas Höppner, partner at law firm Hausfeld, which represents the complainants. “For the first time it has been clarified that Apple may not rely on pretextual privacy arguments to massively restrict competition in its favor,” he said. Companies found guilty of breaching Germany’s antitrust rules risk fines as much as 10% of their annual turnover. Rachel More and Foo Yun Chee, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump’s choice to run the Department of Education, Linda McMahon, faces a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday where Democrats are likely to grill her on the president’s plans to shut the department outright. Trump on Wednesday reiterated his call to shutter the department, which employs about 4,200 people and had a $251 billion budget in the fiscal year that ended in September. “I’d like it to be closed immediately,” Trump said. “The Department of Education’s a big con job.” Shuttering the Cabinet-level department, created in 1979, would ultimately require the approval of Congress, where many Republicans have pushed for years to prioritize local control of the nation’s schools. Despite calling for the department’s closure, Trump and his fellow Republicans have also pushed for the federal government to scrutinize school districts’ sports programs and investigate cases of transgender athletes competing on women’s teams. Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee are expected to press McMahon on the Trump administration’s moves to undo diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and her positions on school choice options, federal spending for high-poverty school districts and funding for the nationwide school lunch program. While they will have the power to grill McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive who headed the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, they do not have the votes to block her confirmation in a chamber that Republicans control 53-47. So far Senate Republicans have not blocked any of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, including controversial picks such as new Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Republicans at McMahon’s Senate confirmation hearing could question her approach towards the nation’s powerful teacher unions, her views of religion and prayer in the classroom, as well as on federal student aid relief, which was implemented by the Biden administration and rolled back by Trump last month. Bo Erickson, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
Japanese automaker Honda reported a 7% decline in profit for the nine months that ended in December on Thursday as it terminated talks on integrating its business with Nissan.Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. said its motorcycles business was strong, but its auto sales suffered in China and Japan, while demand stayed solid in the U.S.Honda’s April-December 2024 profit totaled 805 billion yen ($5 billion), down from 869.6 billion yen the same period in 2023.Nine-month sales gained nearly 9% to 16.3 trillion yen ($106 billion).Honda and Japanese rival Nissan Motor Corp., along with the smaller Mitsubishi Motors Corp., said in December that they were in talks to set up a joint holding company.The automakers said Thursday they were ending the talks, although existing collaborations in electric vehicles and smart cars will continue. Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
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