French competition authority issues antitrust objection to Apple for app data tracking

France's competition authority is investigating whether Apple is abusing its dominant position by asking users to opt into data collection by third party apps, but not its own apps. © Mike Segar/Reuters

France’s competition authority has started an antitrust procedure against Apple by issuing a statement of objections on how the company uses user data from its iPhones for advertising purposes.

The French Competition authority (Autorité de la concurrence) suspects Apple might "abuse its dominant position by implementing discriminatory, non-objective and non-transparent conditions for the use of user data for advertising purposes", it said in a statement published Tuesday.