Italy’s Competition Authority (AGCM) has slapped Apple and two of its divisions with a 98.6 million euro (~$115.3 million) fine. The regulator accuses Apple of abusing its dominant position in the mobile app market. It alleges that the Group violated European regulations with Apple’s App Store, an area where it holds an “absolute dominance” in dealing with third-party developers.
Apple hit with $115 million fine by Italy’s regulator
To recall, the watchdog opened the probe into the technology giant in May 2023. It claimed that Apple penalized third-party app developers by imposing “a more restrictive privacy policy” on them from April 2021. Apple, in a statement, reportedly said that it “strongly disagrees” with the decision. The firm also adds that this disregards the important privacy protections offered by the company’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt.
AGCM also notes that Apple required third-party developers to obtain particular consent for data collection and linking data for advertising purposes through the ATT screen imposed by the company.
The regulator accuses Apple’s App Store of privacy violations
“The terms of the ATT policy are imposed unilaterally, they are detrimental to the interests of Apple’s business partners and are not proportionate to achieving the objective of privacy, as claimed by the company,” the regulator said in a statement. It adds that the whole process does not comply with privacy regulations. Furthermore, the regulator notes that developers were additionally forced to duplicate consent requests for the same purpose.
On its part, Apple apparently says that ATT was in place “to give users a simple way to control whether companies can track their activity across other apps and websites.” It adds that the rules apply equally to all developers, including Apple. The tech firm will reportedly appeal the regulator’s decision and reiterated its commitment to “defend strong privacy protections.”
The AGCM also said that the investigation had been complex. It was apparently done in coordination with the European Commission and other internal antitrust regulators.
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