Italy fines Apple $115m over App Store privacy practices

Italy’s competition authority has imposed a $115 million (€98.6 million) fine on Apple, accusing the tech giant of exploiting its dominant position in the mobile app market.

The Italian regulator, AGCM, said Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy, introduced in 2021, imposed unfair obligations on third-party developers.

Under the policy, developers must obtain users’ explicit consent to collect and link data for advertising purposes.

AGCM found that Apple’s implementation required developers to seek consent twice for the same data use. This “double consent” process was deemed unnecessary for privacy protection and harmful to developers, advertisers, and advertising platforms, as it limited the collection of data crucial for personalised advertising.

The authority described the ATT rules as disproportionate relative to Apple’s stated privacy goals and said the company could have safeguarded users’ data with a simpler, single-step consent system.

The investigation, conducted alongside the European Commission, other national competition authorities, and Italy’s Data Protection Authority, concluded that Apple occupies a “super-dominant” position in the iOS app market.

AGCM ruled that the company violated Article 102 of the EU Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which forbids abuse of a dominant market position.

Apple, which distributes apps worldwide via its App Store, has previously defended ATT as a core measure for user privacy protection.

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