France: Apple 1, trackers 0

From the Wall Street Journal’s “Apple Scores Legal Win in France Over App-Privacy Changes” ($) posted Wednesday:

France’s competition regulator rejected a plea from advertising companies and publishers to block Apple Inc.’s AAPL 1.27% plan to restrict tracking of individuals’ mobile-app usage.

In a potential blow to smaller companies hoping to block big-tech rivals’ privacy initiatives on antitrust grounds, the French regulator on Wednesday said that Apple’s plan to require apps to obtain consent from users to track them “doesn’t appear to be abusive.”

“We can’t intervene just because there might be a negative impact for companies in the ecosystem,” said Isabelle de Silva, head of France’s competition authority, at a press conference. “At this stage, we haven’t found flagrant examples of discrimination.”

The authority said, however, that it plans to pursue an in-depth investigation to determine whether Apple’s changes could be regarded as “self-preferencing” by imposing stricter rules on third-party apps than it does on itself. That investigation could stretch to next year, Ms. de Silva said…

In her press conference, Ms. de Silva said that dominant companies have the right to set rules for their services, so long as those rules aren’t anticompetitive or applied unfairly.

My take: Europeans tends to be more privacy protective than Americans.