Italy Fines Apple €98.6 Million Over Alleged App Store Market Abuse
GeokHub
Contributing Writer
MILAN — December 22 (GeokHub) Italy’s competition authority has imposed a €98.6 million ($115.5 million) fine on Apple and two of its subsidiaries, accusing the U.S. technology giant of abusing its dominant position in the mobile app market through the operation of its App Store.
The regulator said Apple holds “absolute dominance” over access to iOS users and unfairly disadvantaged third-party app developers by enforcing rules that did not apply equally to its own services.
Focus on App Tracking Transparency
At the centre of the ruling is Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, introduced in 2021. Under the system, third-party developers are required to request explicit user consent before collecting and linking data for advertising purposes.
According to the watchdog, Apple imposed these requirements unilaterally and in a way that harmed developers’ commercial interests while exceeding what was necessary to protect user privacy.
Regulators said developers were also forced to present duplicate consent requests to users, creating friction that reduced advertising effectiveness and placed third-party apps at a disadvantage compared with Apple’s own offerings.
Privacy Claims Questioned
While Apple has consistently defended ATT as a privacy-enhancing measure, Italy’s antitrust authority said the framework was not proportionate to the objective it claimed to serve and failed to fully comply with European privacy rules.
“The terms of the policy were imposed without negotiation and disproportionately impacted Apple’s business partners,” the authority said in a statement.
Long Investigation, Wider Scrutiny
The investigation began in May 2023 and was carried out in coordination with the European Commission and international competition regulators, highlighting growing scrutiny of major technology platforms across Europe.
Apple did not immediately comment on the ruling.
The fine adds to a series of regulatory challenges facing large U.S. tech companies in the European Union, where authorities have increasingly targeted practices seen as limiting competition or exploiting market dominance.
