• Italy's antitrust authority has fined Apple €98.6 million ($115 million).
• The fine relates to Apple's handling of its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy.
• Apple's policies were found to restrict competition and harm third-party developers.

Italy's competition authority, AGCM, has imposed a fine of €98.6 million ($115 million) on Apple and its subsidiaries for allegedly abusing their dominant position in the mobile app market. The AGCM's investigation, initiated in May 2023, found that Apple violated European regulations concerning its App Store, where it maintains "absolute dominance" over interactions with third-party developers. The regulator stated that Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy penalized these developers, implementing unwarranted restrictions that do not align with privacy objectives, according to Reuters and AA.

The AGCM highlighted that developers were mandated to secure explicit user consent for data tracking through a process that was unnecessarily complicated, requiring the same consent to be requested twice. This "double consent" model was deemed harmful and disproportionate, undermining the integrity of privacy laws while also disadvantaging Apple's commercial partners and third-party developers. The authority’s findings emphasized that Apple’s unilateral imposition of these terms did not comply with EU competition laws, specifically Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, according to India Times and AA.

In response to the ruling, Apple expressed strong disagreement with the AGCM's assessment, arguing that it disregards users' fundamental rights to manage their personal data. The company plans to appeal the decision, maintaining that the ATT framework is critical to user privacy protection. This controversy follows a broader European effort to regulate major tech firms and ensure fair competition within their respective markets, as noted by Reuters and India Times.