Italy’s competition authority, the AGCM, said on Monday it had fined U.S. technology giant Apple and two of its subsidiaries €98.6 million ($115.53 million) for alleged abuse of a dominant position in the mobile app market.
The regulator said Apple violated European competition rules through practices linked to its App Store, where it holds what the watchdog described as “absolute dominance” in its dealings with third-party app developers.
The investigation, opened in May 2023, focused on Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, which the authority said imposed a more restrictive privacy policy on third-party developers beginning in April 2021. According to the AGCM, Apple required developers to obtain additional user consent for data collection and advertising-related data linking through the ATT prompt.
“The terms of the ATT policy are imposed unilaterally, 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, adding that the process did not comply with privacy regulations. It also said developers were forced to duplicate consent requests for the same purpose.
Apple said it strongly disagreed with the decision, arguing that it disregarded the privacy protections provided by ATT, which the company said was designed to give users control over whether their activity could be tracked across apps and websites. Apple added that the rules apply equally to all developers, including itself, and said it would appeal the ruling.
The AGCM said the investigation was conducted in coordination with the European Commission and other international antitrust authorities.
