Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework, the consent dialog apps must show before following users across other companies’ properties, is under fresh legal attack in London as a tool of self-preference.
The application, lodged with the Competition Appeal Tribunal, accuses Apple of holding outside developers to a stricter consent standard than its own advertising business and seeks £2B, roughly $2.7B.
London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal must first certify the application, a screening step that has derailed or narrowed numerous class-style complaints against technology firms. It is not Apple’s first brush with the court: an autumn ruling assessed roughly £1.5B in liability over app store commission structures, a figure the company continues to fight on appeal.
Apple’s standing defense is that its own apps and ad platform never track users across other companies’ apps and websites, so the consent prompt has nothing to trigger for them. The company says it cannot request permission for data collection it does not perform, and that its advertising rests on first-party context rather than cross-app profiles.
A certified case would force Apple to defend that asymmetry in open court, and a loss could rewrite the consent gate that has governed iOS advertising since 2021. iPhone owners are bystanders to the fight, but they would feel the outcome in how uniformly the tracking prompt appears across the apps they use every day.
