The Italian competition authority, Italy’s equivalent of the Federal Trade Commission, fined Apple Inc. nearly $116 million for what it said were restrictive privacy rules that harmed third-party app developers.
The watchdog authority—known as the AGCM—said on Dec. 22 that Apple, Apple Distribution International Ltd., and Apple Italia S.r.l. abused its “super-dominant” market position in its mobile app environment by making third-party app developers obtain user consent for data collection and tracking for the purpose of delivering targeted advertising.
The fine stems from a joint investigation that began in May 2023 by the AGCM, European Commission, Italian Data Protection Authority (GPDP in Italian), and other national competition authorities into restrictions placed on third-party developers by Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework….