Apple is once again facing allegations of anticompetitive behavior from a government regulator.
Officials at the Italian Competition Authority, AGCM, announced in a press release Monday that they would impose a fine worth more than €98 million–more than $116 million in U.S. Dollars–over its App Tracking Transparency feature. The feature is an example of the company abusing its dominant position in the EU market in a way that harms developers, regulators wrote.
In an executive summary, regulators wrote that they do not oppose Apple’s developers implementing privacy and security measures; instead, they argue that users are required to “double consent” to both App Tracking Transparency and GDPR-related privacy prompts. App Tracking Transparency is imposed ‘unilaterally’ by Apple but cannot be used as its own as it does not meet privacy legislative requirements, they claim.
“Since user data are a key input for personali[z]ed online advertising, the double consent request that inevitably arises from the ATT policy, as implemented, restricts the collection, linking and use of such data,” the regulators write. “As a result, such double consent requirement is harmful to developers, whose business model relies on the sale of advertising space, as well as to advertisers and advertising intermediation platforms.”
The regulators also appear to claim that Apple financially benefits from the feature through “higher commissions collected from developers through the App Store” as well as growth for its own advertising service.
Apple executives introduced App Tracking Transparency in April 2021 with iOS 14.5 for iPhone, and with accompanying updates for iPad and Apple TV. The feature allows users to ask apps not to track them across other apps and websites by shutting off access to the device’s advertising identifier.
This is one of many complaints Apple has received from competition regulators, particularly those in the European Union, over the past few years. Most recently, a similar complaint from regulators in Poland led Apple to release a statement threatening to withdraw the feature entirely. In response, Apple appears to be taking a more cautious approach when releasing new features in the E.U.
An Apple spokesperson shared the company’s intent to appeal the decision in a statement shared with Reuters.
