Apple, 98 million antitrust fine for abuse of dominant position

The Authorita Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato imposed a fine of EUR 98,635,416.67 on Apple Inc., Apple Distribution International Ltd and Apple Italia Srl for abuse of a dominant position.

Apple, informs a note, has violated Article 102 of the Tfue with regard to the market for the provision to developers of platforms for the online distribution of apps for users of the iOS operating system. In that market, Apple is in a position of absolute dominance through its App Store.

At the end of a complex investigation, carried out also in coordination with the European Commission, with other national competition authorities and with the Authority for the Protection of Personal Data, the Antitrust Authority ascertained the restrictiveness - from a competitive point of view - of the App Tracking Transparency policy, i.e. of the privacy rules imposed by Apple, as of April 2021, as part of its iOS mobile operating system, on third-party developers of apps distributed through the App Store.

The company said that 'at Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right, and we created App Tracking Transparency (ATT) to give users an easy way to decide whether companies can track their activity on other apps and websites. These rules apply equally to all developers, including Apple, and have been welcomed by customers and appreciated by privacy advocates and data protection authorities around the world, including the Garante. We strongly disagree with the DPA's decision, which ignores the important privacy protections afforded by App Tracking Transparency in favour of advertising and data broker tech companies who want unrestricted access to users' personal data. We will continue to defend strong privacy protections for our users while we appeal".