Apple has agreed to change the way apps request iPhone and iPad users’ consent for using their data in targeted advertising, ending a years-long German investigation into whether the company was giving its services better treatment than competing apps.

According to Germany's Federal Cartel Office, Apple's commitments are binding and will remain subject to oversight for seven years.

The issue stems from Apple’s “App Tracking Transparency” framework that it imposed on app developers. For certain types of data use across different companies, a third-party app needs to obtain user consent under data protection rules, and the user also faces an additional window designed by Apple to request permission for tracking. However, the German authority said that the same rules were not being applied in the same way to Apple's own services, which use data from its ecosystem and present the user with a different consent window.

The issue, according to the Federal Cartel Office, was not an objection to Apple’s right to provide high levels of privacy for users of its devices, but rather to the possibility that the way these rules were designed could make it more difficult for competing apps to obtain user consent compared to Apple's own services.

The head of the office, Andreas Mundt, said that the company can implement protection beyond the minimum legal requirement. However, when it imposes additional rules within its system, its offers should not be given a better status than those of its competitors.

Under the new solution, Apple will make its approval windows and those of other applications more similar in terms of language, design, and visual elements. It will also give application publishers more space to integrate required approval requests in a clearer way.

According to the decision, Apple has 4 months from the date it is notified to implement the proposed amendments. It should test them before implementation in cooperation with application publishers. An independent monitor will oversee the implementation of the commitments for the seven years that it remains bound by them.

The issue is particularly important for free applications that depend partially or entirely on advertising. The fewer users who allow their data to be used in targeted advertisements, the less able some publishers are to target ads in a way that depends on their business model.

And the German case is not isolated from wider European moves on the same framework, as France’s competition authority has already imposed a fine of 150 million euros on Apple, while Italian authorities have imposed a penalty of 98.6 million euros in related cases concerning how app tracking rules are applied. The total fines amount to about 248.6 million euros. In this case, Germany chose to require the company to make future changes rather than focus on a financial fine.

Apple introduced the App Tracking Transparency framework with iOS 14 in order to give users greater control over tracking their activity between apps and websites.

According to Germany’s authority, Apple says it still considers its rules to be in compliance with competition law, but it has made commitments that have now been accepted by the authorities.