Apple Slammed with $162M Fine Over Privacy Tool in France (2025)

Apple just got smacked with a €150 million ($162 million) fine in France-and it’s not over iPhones or overpriced chargers.

The tech giant is being punished for what regulators call “abuse of market power” tied to its so-called privacy tool, App Tracking Transparency (ATT). While Apple paints ATT as a heroic defender of user privacy, French watchdogs say it’s a thinly veiled move to cripple ad competition and protect Apple’s own turf.

The fine, issued by France’s Competition Authority on March 31, 2025, is the first antitrust penalty anywhere in the world directly targeting ATT. If that’s not a wake-up call, consider this: the fine comes just a year after Apple was slammed with a €1.8 billion penalty from the EU over its shady handling of music streaming rivals in the App Store.

The core issue? Apple lets users block ad tracking, but only in a way that punishes smaller advertisers and makes life harder for everyone except Apple. While major players can swallow the costs, small publishers and app developers are being bled dry, unable to compete with the data-hungry beast that is Cupertino’s empire.

And get this-Apple doesn’t have to change a single thing. That’s right. Despite the fine, France isn’t forcing Apple to alter ATT immediately. Instead, regulators are leaving it up to Apple to fix the problem… whenever they feel like it. Sounds like a slap on the wrist? Maybe. But the symbolic blow is massive.

Apple’s response? The usual: disappointed but not surprised. In a statement, the company defended ATT as a win for users and privacy, but critics say it’s just a way to shut out competition while wearing a white hat.

The complaint was filed by digital ad and media groups who claim Apple’s ATT policy created an uneven playing field, pushing everyone but Apple out of the high-stakes mobile ad game. The watchdog agreed, saying the privacy features were “neither necessary nor proportionate” and ended up doing more harm than good-especially to the little guys trying to survive.

Worse still? Regulators in Germany, Italy, Poland, and Romania are hot on Apple’s heels too. This could just be the start of a global regulatory nightmare for Tim Cook’s team.

Bottom line? Apple’s “privacy first” image just took a major hit. France made it loud and clear: you can’t kill your competitors under the guise of user protection. And with billions in ad revenue on the line, this battle is far from over.