Italy regulator slaps $115 mn fine on Apple for alleged anti-trust breaches

Italy's competition authority (AGCM) said on Monday it had fined U.S technology giant Apple, opens new tab and two of its divisions 98.6 million euros ($115.53 million) over alleged abuse of their dominant position in the mobile app market.

 

The regulator said the group allegedly violated European regulations with Apple's App Store, where it holds an "absolute dominance" in dealing with third-party developers.

 

The watchdog opened the probe into the technology giant in May 2023, claiming the company penalised third-party app developers by imposing "a more restrictive privacy policy" on them from April 2021.

 

Apple said in a statement it "strongly disagrees" with the decision that it claims "disregards the important privacy protections" provided by the company's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt.

 

AGCM said that Apple required third-party developers to obtain specific consent for data collection and linking data for advertising purposes through the ATT screen imposed by the company.

 

"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, adding the process does not comply with privacy regulations.

 

Developers were additionally forced to duplicate consent requests for the same purpose, it added.

 

ATT was created "to give users a simple way to control whether companies can track their activity across other apps and websites," the tech company said, adding the rules apply equally to all developers, including Apple.

 

The firm will appeal the regulator's decision and reiterated its commitment "to defend strong privacy protections".

 

The AGCM said that its investigation had been complex and carried out in coordination with the European Commission and other international antitrust regulators.