The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) announced on Monday (December 22) that it has fined the American tech giant Apple and its two subsidiaries a total of 98.6 million euros (approximately 115.53 million US dollars) for abusing its dominant position in the mobile app market, violating European antitrust regulations.
According to a report by Reuters on Monday, the Italian regulatory authority stated that Apple, Apple Distribution International, and Apple Italia abused their “absolute dominant position” when dealing with third-party developers through their App Store, potentially violating relevant regulations.
The investigation into Apple by the authority was initiated in May 2023. The findings of the investigation determined that Apple’s “App Tracking Transparency” (ATT) policy had anti-competitive implications from a competition law perspective.
The ATT policy was implemented by Apple in April 2021, imposing privacy rules on third-party app developers distributing through the App Store for iOS devices. The policy requires third-party apps to obtain explicit user consent before collecting and tracking user data for advertising purposes.
Apple swiftly responded to the decision, stating that it “strongly disagrees” with it. Apple argued that the decision “disregards” the “significant privacy protections” provided by their policy.
In a statement, the Italian Competition Authority said, “The terms of the ATT policy are unilaterally imposed, damaging the interests of Apple’s business partners and disproportionate to the company’s claimed privacy goals.” Additionally, the implementation process of the policy is non-compliant with privacy regulations and is alleged to intentionally create friction between users and businesses.
The Authority emphasized that this action made data collection more challenging for third-party developers while favoring Apple’s own services. They expressed that due to the complexity of the situation, the investigation was coordinated by the Competition Authority with the European Commission and other international antitrust regulatory bodies.
Apple stated that the purpose of ATT is to “empower users to control whether companies can track their activities across other apps and websites in a simple way,” and these rules apply equally to all developers, including Apple itself.
Apple announced that they will appeal this decision and reiterated their commitment to defending their pledge of providing “robust privacy protection.”