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Apple privacy and antitrust legal challenges

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2026-09-03 20:45 UTC → 2026-09-04 11:34 UTC · added ~~removed~~

Apple is facing significant legal challenges regarding its privacy and data policies in both the United States and the United Kingdom. In the United States, a judge allowed a lawsuit to proceed concerning Apple Photos’ face-recognition feature. The suit alleges violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, seeking up to $32 billion in damages. Apple maintains that its recognition algorithm runs locally on devices and does not transmit images to its servers. In the United Kingdom, a £2 billion ($2.7 billion) collective action lawsuit has been filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal by ATT Collective Action Limited, represented by the law firm Hausfeld. The claimants allege that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework—introduced in 2021 to require user permission for cross-platform tracking—abuses market power. The lawsuit argues that while marketed as a privacy tool, the ATT framework imposes stricter requirements on third-party developers than on Apple’s own services, providing an unfair advantage to Apple’s advertising ecosystem. Ann Pope, a former senior official at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, stated the policy “resulted in very significant harm to businesses that depend on Apple as a gatekeeper.” This legal action follows years of regulatory scrutiny in Europe, including investigations and fines in France and Italy, as well as regulatory changes in Germany regarding app tracking consent. Apple has defended the feature, asserting it provides essential privacy controls and that the company is subject to the same requirements as all other developers.

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