"In a press release, the Italian Competition Authority said that an "App Tracking Transparency" (ATT) privacy policy that Apple introduced in 2021 forced third-party developers to seek consent twice for the same data collection. Requiring such "double consent" was "extremely burdensome" and "harmful" to some developers-especially the smallest developers, the regulator said. Many developers struggled to earn ad revenue after the policy was introduced, as users increasingly declined to opt into personalized ads."
"Meanwhile, Apple may have benefited from the ATT restricting developers' ad revenues, either "in the form of higher commissions collected from developers through the App Store and, indirectly, in terms of the growth of its own advertising service." Since ATT was adopted, "revenues from App Store services increased," the regulator said, as developers paid higher commissions and "likewise, Apple's advertising division, which is not subject to the same stringent rules, ultimately benefited from increased revenues and higher volumes of intermediated ads.""
Italy's competition authority fined Apple €115 million for abusing its dominant position by implementing App Tracking Transparency (ATT) in 2021. ATT required third-party developers to obtain user consent twice for the same data collection, creating a burdensome double-consent process. The double-consent harmed many developers, especially smaller ones, by reducing ad revenues as users increasingly declined personalized ads. The authority found Apple indirectly benefited through higher App Store commissions and growth in its advertising service, which faced fewer restrictions. The authority concluded the additional consent screen was disproportionate and required Apple to allow single-step consent for profiling.
Read at Ars Technica
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