Germany’s antitrust watchdog has launched an investigation into Apple to determine whether the tech giant has exploited its market dominance.
The investigation follows the introduction of new competition laws aimed towards digital giants. Reuters reports that the watchdog, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO), will investigate whether Apple has a “paramount significance across markets.”
“Based on this first proceeding, the (FCO) intends to assess in more detail specific practices of Apple in a possible further proceeding. In this regard, the authority has received various complaints relating to potentially anti-competitive practices.”
The watchdog has noted that it received a complaint from an advertising company about Apple restricting user tracking through its new data privacy feature.
For context, developers are now required to ask users for their permission to track them across apps and websites with iOS 14.5.
A spokesperson for Apple told Reuters that the company looks “forward to discussing our approach with the FCO and having an open dialogue about any of their concerns.”
The FCO has recently launched similar investigations into Facebook, Amazon and Google.
Source: Reuters
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