Italy Fines Apple $115 Million Over App Store

SadaNews - The Italian Competition Authority announced on Monday that it has fined the American tech giant Apple and two of its subsidiaries €98.6 million ($115.53 million) for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the mobile app market.

The regulatory body stated that the group is alleged to have violated European regulations through the Apple "App Store," where it holds "absolute dominance" in its dealings with third-party app developers.

The authority initiated an investigation into the tech giant in May 2023, claiming that the company penalized third-party app developers by imposing a "more restrictive privacy policy" on them starting in April 2021.

The authority explained that Apple required third-party app developers to obtain specific consent to collect and link data for advertising purposes, through a screen imposed by Apple known as "App Tracking Transparency."

The regulatory agency added in a statement that "the conditions of the App Tracking Transparency policy are imposed unilaterally, harming Apple’s business partners, and do not align with achieving the privacy goal that the company claims," indicating that this mechanism does not comply with privacy regulations.

It stated that developers were also forced to repeat consent requests for the same purpose.

The Italian Competition Authority noted that its investigation was complex and conducted in coordination with the European Commission and other international antitrust and competition agencies.