Apple who is currently under investigation in Australia is now being is being investigated by Germany’s antitrust watchdog over whether they are using tracking rules to drive business away from their rivals when consumers use an Apple product.

German authorities believe that the US tech company’s tracking rules for third-party apps gives it preferential treatment or undermines its rivals as a result Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has started an investigation raising concerns that the company’s rules were “self-preferencing” and harmed competition given Apple’s ability to “unilaterally set rules for its ecosystem.”

The new tracking rules were introduced by Apple early in 2021 force third-party apps to ask users for permission before they track their behaviour to serve them personalised ads.

The German watchdog said it was concerned that Apple’s new rules did not apply to itself.

The Financial Times claims that the changes have had a significant impact on the advertising businesses of large technology companies.

Organisations such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Snap were estimated to have lost 12 per cent of revenue in the third and fourth quarters of the year, or $9.85bn, because of these changes, according to adtech company Lotame.

This is not the first time that Apple has been probed by authorities re third party apps.

Last year, the French competition watchdog opened an investigation to assess whether Apple was acting as a gatekeeper when it came to third-party apps.

The latest probe comes after a group of Germany’s largest media, tech and advertising companies, and industry bodies representing companies including Facebook and Axel Springer, the owner of Bild, Die Welt and Insider, filed a complaint about Apple’s update last April.

They predicted a 60 per cent fall in advertising revenues for app developers.

“All apps have to ask for their users’ consent to track their data. Apple’s rules now also make tracking conditional on the users’ consent to the use and combination of their data,” the statement said. “These rules apparently do not affect Apple when using and combining user data from its own ecosystem.”

Andreas Mundt, the agency’s head, said: “We have reason to doubt that this is the case when we see that Apple’s rules apply to third parties, but not to Apple itself. This would allow Apple to preference its own offers or impede other companies.”

Apple responded claiming its rules applied equally to all developers — including itself.

The tech company said it had received strong support from regulators and privacy advocates for its changes.

“ATT [App Tracking Transparency] simply gives users the choice whether or not they want to allow apps to track them or share their information with data brokers. ATT does not prevent companies from advertising or restrict their use of the first-party data they obtain from users with their consent,” it said.

Apple said it would continue to engage constructively with the FCO to address questions and “discuss how our approach promotes competition and choice, while protecting users’ privacy and security”