PALO ALTO/NEW YORK (US) – Facebook Inc accused rival Apple Inc of engaging in anticompetitive practices on Wednesday, for taking one step ahead in a month-long standoff between the two over Apple’s planned privacy changes for iOS14.
Facebook Vice President for Ads and Business Products Dan Levy told reporters, “Apple is behaving anticompetitively by using their control of the App Store to benefit their bottom line at the expense of creators and small businesses. Full stop.”
In response, Apple said its new rules will not prompt Facebook for a change its “approach to tracking users and creating targeted advertising”. However, it requires Facebook to give users on Apple devices a choice of whether to opt in to those practices.
“We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users. Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not,” Apple said in a statement.
It said in a blog post that Apple’s own personalised ad platform would be excluded from the new prompt requirement the iPhone maker would make plans to impose on other companies.
Levy said that although Facebook did not agree with Apple’s approach, it would comply with the new rules and display a prompt. “We don’t have a choice if we want our app to be available in the App Store,” he said.
He refused to divulge whether Facebook would take any action to push back against the policy.
Facebook and Apple have also been in dispute over commission fees the iPhone maker have imposed on apps listed on iOS devices.
Apple continued to receive criticism on Wednesday as Digital Content Next, a digital media trade association representing members such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, announced it had started the Coalition for App Fairness.
Facebook said in a blog post that it was “committed to providing relevant information” in a federal antitrust lawsuit filed by Epic Games challenging the commission fee rules, but declined to specify how it would participate in the litigation.