Apple warns that it is possible to withdraw from Romania an iPhone function that has caused controversy throughout Europe
Apple says it may remove from iPhones in Romania a feature called ATT that allows users to block the tracking of their activity in apps and websites. The Competition Council announced in October 2023 that it was investigating Apple for possible abuse of a dominant position in the advertising market, and the investigation should be completed in the first half of this year.
In a statement sent to the press yesterday, Apple says that “intense lobbying efforts could force us to withdraw this feature, to the detriment of Romanian consumers.”
This tracking is very useful for advertising companies for user profiling.
What is the function of ATT and why is there much discussion
The feature called ATT, introduced in 2020, allows Apple users to decide whether apps can track their activity in other apps and on other companies' websites. The feature has generated controversy in several European countries, and the online advertising industry says it has lost hugely because of it.
The Romanian Competition Council said in October 2023 that it suspected that by introducing the ATT (“App Tracking Transparency”) policy, Apple encouraged users to limit the access of other applications to the advertising profile IDFA (“Identifier for Advertisers”), which led to a restriction of competition in the advertising market through applications on iOS mobile devices, having effects on all actors involved, advertising agencies, application developers, attribution or performance service providers, etc., as well as on consumers finals”.
Contacted by HotNews.ro, representatives of the Conurence Council said that the investigation is “in progress”. In February, the CC president, Bogdan Chirițoiu, said that the Apple investigation is one of those that should be completed in the first part of 2026.
Authorities in several European countries say the way Apple implemented the feature is anti-competitive, and the company has been fined in France and Italy. In November 2025, the Polish authorities also opened an investigation.
The latest controversy – reported by Reuters on March 10 – is from Germany, where publishers and major players in online advertising are demanding that Apple be fined by the competition authority over ATT. Apple made a number of changes, but they were considered insufficient.
The investigation in Germany started from complaints filed by Meta, publishers, advertising companies, but also by some application developers, upset that their business model, which is based on tracking the behavior of users, is suffering.
What Apple says
“We believe privacy is a fundamental human right, and App Tracking Transparency was created to give users a simple way to control whether apps are allowed to track their activity in other apps and on other companies' websites. This feature has been widely adopted by our customers and appreciated by privacy advocates and data protection authorities around the world,” Apple said yesterday.
The company says that “intense lobbying efforts could force us to withdraw this feature, to the detriment of Romanian consumers.”
“We will work with the Romanian Competition Council to ensure that Apple can continue to offer users this important tool.”
Apple also said that the feature is extremely popular among iPhone and iPad users, and the company's data shows that the overwhelming majority choose to opt out of having their data reach big advertising companies and data “brokers.”
Basically, because most users choose the “Ask App Not to Track” option, the ability of advertising companies to track users has been drastically reduced, and they have total control over the data, Apple also says.
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