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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Italy’s competition authority (AGCM) has fined Apple €98 million for abusing its dominant position by unfairly applying its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy, according to reports from AFP and Reuters on Tuesday.
The watchdog said Apple leveraged its control over the App Store to impose stricter data protection requirements on third-party developers while granting its own apps more favorable advertising and search conditions, thereby distorting competition.
Introduced in April 2021, ATT requires apps to obtain user consent before tracking activity across websites and apps. If users decline, access to such data is blocked. While Apple said the policy was designed to enhance user privacy, Italian regulators concluded that its implementation was asymmetric, placing rival developers at a competitive disadvantage.
AGCM also noted that third-party developers were forced to seek multiple, overlapping user consents to achieve the same objectives, adding unnecessary complexity and undermining fair competition.
The authority ruled that Apple’s privacy justification was disproportionate to the measures used and resulted in harm to business partners rather than genuine consumer protection.
Regulatory scrutiny of Apple’s ATT framework is intensifying across Europe. France imposed a €150 million fine on Apple in March over similar concerns, while competition authorities in Romania and Poland are conducting parallel investigations.
알파경제 Kim Jisun (stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
