"How do you quantify the abuse of a company's power in its chosen industry? We're seeing one answer to that question in Italy this week, where the Italian Competition Authority has issued a fine to Apple over "abuse of a dominant position" related to the tech company's App Store. The fine that's been levied is a very specific €98,635,416.67, which translates to $116,000,725.26 at the current rate of exchange."
"The Italian Competition Authority took issue with a specific aspect of Apple's App Store policy: specifically, that Apple's privacy rules restricted the competition of third-party developers. The Authority went on to argue that the App Tracking Transparency's terms were "disproportionate to the achievement of the company's stated data protection objectives." The ICA argued that the demands made on third-party developers to request consent for collecting and linking data to display advertisements did not "meet privacy legislation requirements, forcing developers to double the consent request for the same purpose." The full decision - all 199 pages of it - can be read here, though if you aren't fluent in Italian, you may be out of luck."
""We strongly disagree with the ICA's decision, which disregards the important privacy protections ATT provides in favor of ad tech companies and data brokers who want unfettered access to users' personal data," Apple wrote. "We will continue to defend strong privacy protections for our users as we appeal.""
The Italian Competition Authority imposed a €98,635,416.67 fine on Apple for alleged abuse of a dominant position linked to App Store policies. The Authority found that Apple's App Tracking Transparency privacy rules restricted third-party developers' competition and deemed those terms disproportionate to data protection objectives. The ICA concluded that developers were forced to request consent twice for the same ad-targeting data, which did not meet privacy legislation requirements. Apple plans to appeal and defended App Tracking Transparency as vital user privacy protection against ad tech companies and data brokers. The decision spans 199 pages and relates to broader international regulatory scrutiny, including recent iOS changes for Japan.
Read at InsideHook
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