Now It's Poland's Turn To Sue Apple's New Privacy Rules, Who's Next?

JAKARTA - Apple is facing an investigation in Poland into whether its new rules on privacy and processing of personal data for iOS devices violate competition laws, Polish antitrust watchdog UOKiK said Monday, December 13.

Apple rolled out an update to its iOS operating system last April with new privacy controls designed to limit digital advertisers from tracking iPhone users.

Polish regulators say Apple's new rules have significantly reduced the ability of third-party apps to obtain personal data to send personalized ads. This case is also disputed by several governments in Europe, such as Italy and Spain.

"We wanted to examine whether Apple's actions might be aimed at eliminating competitors in the market for personalized advertising services, the goal being to better sell their own services," UOKiK President Tomasz Chrostny said in a statement.

"We will investigate whether this case is a category of abuse of market power exclusively," Chrostny added.

The regulator said it was investigating the matter, but the process was not aimed at specific companies. Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment from Reuters.

The European Union's Head of Technology, Margrethe Vestager, has also warned Apple against using privacy and security concerns to fend off the competition on its App Store.

A number of countries continue to corner Apple because of their policies. This will make it difficult for Apple to continue to apply the rules that are considered to have monopolized the application competition in their products.