Apple fined 98 million euros in Italy for antitrust violations

The Italian Antitrust Authority (AGCM) on Monday fined American tech giant Apple 98 million euros for violating antitrust laws through its so-called App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy, UNN reports with reference to Euractiv.

Details

App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is a set of privacy rules that Apple has implemented for third-party app developers operating in its app store since 2021. Third-party app developers are required to obtain specific consent for data collection and linking for advertising purposes.

AGCM claims that this policy violates European antitrust rules, in particular by abusing Apple's dominant position in the app store market.

Apple's tracking policy was also unilaterally imposed on all other developers and harmed the interests of Apple's commercial partners, the AGCM said.

It was also found that this policy was disproportionate in terms of data protection, as it forced third-party developers to request consent twice for the same purposes, which the AGCM deemed "disproportionate."

In addition, it was noted that Apple should have ensured the same level of user privacy protection by allowing app developers to obtain consent for profiling in a single step.

Addition

In March, the iPhone maker was fined 150 million euros by French antitrust authorities for its transparency policy. Earlier, in February, the German antitrust authority also pointed to similar issues in its preliminary findings.

On Monday, the AGCM also stated that it conducted this investigation jointly with the European Commission.

At the time of publication, Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the publication writes.