ROME — Italian antitrust regulators have imposed a substantial €98 million (approximately $115 million) penalty against technology behemoth Apple Inc. for alleged anti-competitive practices within its mobile application ecosystem. The Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) announced the decisive action on Monday, marking one of Europe’s most significant challenges to Apple’s App Store policies.
The AGCM’s comprehensive investigation concluded that Apple holds a ‘super-dominant position’ in the app distribution market and has abused this power through its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework. According to the regulatory body, Apple unilaterally imposed privacy regulations that created unfair disadvantages for third-party developers while simultaneously benefiting Apple’s own advertising services.
Introduced in 2021, Apple’s ATT system requires applications to display explicit pop-up notifications seeking user permission before tracking their activity across other applications and websites. While marketed as a privacy enhancement feature, Italian authorities found the implementation disproportionately restricted competitors’ ability to deliver targeted advertising while preserving Apple’s advertising capabilities.
Apple has immediately contested the ruling, stating its intention to appeal the decision. The Cupertino-based company defended its privacy framework as providing ‘strong privacy protections for our users’ that have received widespread praise from privacy advocates and data protection authorities globally.
This enforcement action represents the latest escalation in Europe’s ongoing scrutiny of Big Tech’s market practices. French competition authorities previously levied a €150 million fine against Apple for similar concerns regarding its app tracking policies. Multiple European regulatory bodies have initiated parallel investigations into whether Apple’s privacy safeguards potentially violate antitrust regulations by creating uneven competitive playing fields.
The Italian decision highlights the growing tension between privacy protection initiatives and antitrust enforcement, particularly concerning how technology giants implement controls that may simultaneously serve both user privacy and corporate competitive interests.