After the EU's sky-high fine for monopolistic behavior in 2024 due to the "Apple tax", Apple is in trouble again.

 On March 31, the French Competition Authority (FCA) announced a fine of 150 million euros (about $162 million, equivalent to nearly 1.2 billion yuan) against Apple of the United States for abusing its dominant position in targeted advertising on devices.

 In a press release, the French competition Authority noted that Apple's Application Tracking Transparency (ATT) tool, launched in April 2021 under the banner of protecting user privacy, was implemented in a way that was "neither necessary nor appropriate." The mechanism is suspected of favoring Apple's own services at the expense of third-party apps.

 The press release said the mechanism overcomplicates the process for using third-party apps on iphones and ipads, shows Apple's "asymmetrical" treatment of its own apps and third-party apps, and is particularly harmful to small app publishers.

 The French competition authority said the penalty was for violations committed by Apple between April 2021 and July 2023. In addition to the fine, the agency ordered Apple to post a summary of the penalty decision on its website for seven consecutive days.

 Apple did not respond to requests for comment as of press time.

 In fact, regulators across Europe have tightened their grip on tech giants in recent years.

 In September last year, the European Court of Justice, the highest judicial body of the European Union, made a final ruling on the huge tax evasion case against Apple, ruling that the Irish government used tax revenue as a national resource to provide improper benefits to Apple, and Apple should pay 13 billion euros (about 102 billion yuan) in taxes to the Irish government.

 In September of the same year, Germany's antitrust regulator, the Federal Cartel Office (FCO), identified Microsoft as a "company essential for cross-market competition." The FOC's inclusion in this category means Microsoft is subject to Germany's special abuse control regime, and if the FOC deems it necessary to intervene, it will take action against Microsoft to prohibit the company's "anti-competitive conduct," which could include greater scrutiny of Microsoft's AI applications and its work with OpenAI.

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