"The Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, or AGCM) said the company's "absolute dominant position" in app distribution allowed it to "unilaterally impose" the ATT rules on third-party app developers, without consulting with them beforehand. The investigation was launched in May 2023. The AGCM said it's not calling into question Apple's decision to adopt safeguards designed to enhance users' privacy on iOS, but rather it's taking issue with the consent requirements that are excessively burdensome for developers and "disproportionate" to the stated objectives of ATT."
""In particular, third-party app developers are required to obtain specific consent for the collection and linking of data for advertising purposes through Apple's ATT prompt," AGCM said. "However, such a prompt does not meet privacy legislation requirements, forcing developers to double the consent request for the same purpose.""
"The authority also said the double consent requirement that arises as a result of ATT harms third-party developers who rely on advertising, adding, "Apple should have ensured the same level of privacy protection for users by allowing developers to obtain consent to profiling in a single 'Personalized Advertising' prompt. In a statement shared with Reuters, Apple said it will appeal the regulator's decision and reiterated its commitment "to defend strong privacy protections.""
Italy's antitrust authority fined Apple €98.6 million after finding that App Tracking Transparency (ATT) restricted App Store competition. The AGCM concluded Apple's dominant app distribution position allowed it to unilaterally impose ATT rules on third-party developers without prior consultation. ATT forces developers to present both ATT and GDPR permission prompts to E.U. iPhone and iPad users to seek consent for personalized ads, while Apple's own apps obtain the same permission with a single tap. The AGCM characterized the consent requirements as excessively burdensome and disproportionate and said the double-consent harms ad-reliant developers. Apple said it will appeal and defended its privacy protections.
Read at The Hacker News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]