The regulatory body stated that the group is accused of violating European laws through the Apple App Store, where it enjoys “absolute dominance” in its dealings with external application developers, according to Reuters.
The authority had launched an investigation into the giant company in May 2023, claiming that the company penalized external application developers by imposing a “more restrictive privacy policy” on them as of April 2021.
The authority clarified that Apple required external application developers to obtain specific permission to collect and link data for advertising purposes, via a window imposed by Apple known as “App Tracking Transparency.”
The regulatory body added in a statement that “the terms of the App Tracking Transparency policy are imposed unilaterally, harming the interests of Apple’s commercial partners and are not proportionate to achieving the privacy goal claimed by the company,” and pointed out that this mechanism does not comply with privacy regulations.
The authority mentioned that developers were also forced to repeat requests for approval for the same purpose.
The Italian Competition Authority indicated that its investigation was complex and was carried out in coordination with the European Commission and other international bodies concerned with combating monopolies and competition.
