Apple Faces £2Bn UK Developer Claim Over App Tracking Transparency

Apple is facing a £2 billion collective action filed on behalf of thousands of UK app developers in the Competition Appeal Tribunal, according to Hausfeld, the law firm acting for the claimants. The claim, brought by ATT Collective Action Limited on 2026년 9월 3일, alleges that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework was designed and implemented unfairly and imposed stricter requirements on third-party developers than on Apple’s own services.

The claim centres on App Tracking Transparency, the privacy framework Apple introduced on 2021년 4월 26일, which changed how developers provide their services on iPhones and iPads. Third-party iOS apps must obtain user consent under data protection law, as well as an additional consent through a prompt predefined by Apple. Those rules do not apply to Apple’s own offerings, which use a separate prompt to request user consent to personalised advertising.

The Allegations

The claimants argue that the resulting double consent requirement harms developers whose business models rely on the sale of advertising space, as well as advertisers and advertising intermediation platforms. The claim alleges that Apple applied less burdensome requirements to its own advertising and data collection activities than those imposed on third-party developers.

Hausfeld said the framework was imposed unilaterally across the iOS ecosystem without consulting developers, leaving third parties with little practical choice but to comply if they wished to continue reaching Apple users. The claim further alleges that the differences gave Apple’s advertising ecosystem a competitive advantage while imposing additional restrictions on businesses that depend on the App Store.

Ann Pope, director of the proposed class representative ATT Collective Action Limited, is a former Senior Director for Antitrust at the Competition and Markets Authority, where she served between 2014 and 2024. She began her career at the Office of Fair Trading, the CMA’s predecessor, in 1988.

“Privacy is an important protection for consumers, but it should be applied fairly and in a way that ensures businesses of all sizes can compete on a level playing field,” Pope said. “It cannot become a reason for digital platforms to play by one set of rules while forcing app developers to play by another.”

An Opt-Out Claim for UK Developers

The action is structured as an opt-out collective proceeding, meaning UK app developers who generated revenue from advertising within a third-party iOS app, or who spent money on advertising to attract users to one, are automatically represented. According to the official claim website, developers may be entitled to compensation if they had an app on the Apple App Store since 2021년 4월.

The claim site states that evidence seen by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in a separate case, Ennis v Apple, indicates there are more than 13,000 app developers in the UK. Around 70% of those developers are smaller organisations whose apps have fewer than 100,000 downloads. The site also notes that preliminary estimates suggest Apple’s design and implementation of App Tracking Transparency may have cost UK app developers £2 billion since 2021년 4월.

The claim is funded by TR Global Funding X (Jersey), LP. The legal team is led by Hausfeld partners Luke Streatfeild and Amandine Gueret, with counsel including Gerry Facenna KC of Monckton Chambers.

Regulatory Scrutiny Across Europe

The filing arrives as Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework faces sustained attention from competition regulators across Europe. Apple’s introduction of the framework triggered investigations by competition authorities in France, Italy, Germany, Poland and Romania, according to the Hausfeld release.

In 2025년 3월, the French Competition Authority fined Apple €150 million over its implementation of the framework. In 2025년 12월, the Italian Competition Authority fined Apple €98.6 million, finding that its terms were imposed unilaterally and were detrimental to Apple’s commercial partners, including third-party app developers. The Italian decision also requires Apple to immediately cease its anti-competitive conduct.

On 2026년 8월 17일, Germany’s Bundeskartellamt announced that Apple had offered binding commitments to change its rules on personalised advertising in apps. The German regulator had objected to the way Apple designed different consent requests for its own offerings and third-party apps. Under the commitments, Apple will align the consent prompts more closely, remove potentially discouraging symbols and wording in its predefined requests for third-party providers, and give app publishers more freedom to combine consent requests. Apple has four months from service of the decision to implement the changes, which will be monitored by an independent trustee and apply for seven years.

In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority designated Apple with strategic market status in relation to its mobile platform in 2025년 10월. In that decision, the CMA confirmed that Apple has substantial, entrenched market power and a position of strategic significance in its mobile platform, covering operating systems, app distribution, browsers and browser engines. The designation itself is not a finding of wrongdoing, but it enables the CMA to consider targeted interventions to ensure mobile platforms are open to effective competition.

The claim must be certified by the Competition Appeal Tribunal before it proceeds. UK app developers who believe they fall within the class can register their interest through the claim website.