Apple has a ‘super-dominant position’ in the app distribution market through the App Store, the AGCM finds.
Italian competition authority (AGCM) has fined Apple more than €98.6m after finding that the company abused the “super-dominant position” it has in the app distribution market with its App Store.
The issue stems from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy – the privacy policy imposed by Apple for iOS devices. The ATT policy in question has been in action since 2021.
The AGCM finds that the policy requires third-party app developers distributing on iOS to obtain specific consent from users to collect and link data for advertising purposes. Such a process does not comply with privacy requirements, the Italian authority said, and forces third-party developers to double the consent requests for the same purposes.
The terms of the ATT policy are “imposed unilaterally and harm the interests of Apple’s commercial partners”, the AGCM said in a statement. It explains that since user data is a key input required for personalised advertising, double consent requests restrict data collection, linking and use. This results in harm to developers, whose model relies on the sale of ad space in their apps.
In addition, it also says that the ATT policy terms are “disproportionate” to Apple’s stated data protection objectives.
The AGCM opened its market abuse probe into Apple in 2023, carrying out the investigation alongside the European Commission and other national authorities. SiliconRepublic.com has reached out to Apple for comments on the matter.
The iPhone-maker and one of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ companies came under AGCM fire once before in 2021 when it was fined €10m for not providing users with clear information on how their data is used for commercial purposes.
More recently, the AGCM fined Dublin-based company Infinite Styles Services, which manages Shein’s trading websites in Europe, €1m for greenwashing.
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