Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

A561 - The Italian Competition Authority fines Apple over 98 million euro for abuse of a dominant position PRESS RELEASE The Authority found the App Tracking Transparency (“ATT”) policy to restrict competition. The policy lays down the privacy rules imposed by the company on third-party developers of apps offered on the App Store. The Italian Competition Authority has imposed a 98,635,416.67 euro fine on Apple Inc., Apple Distribution International Ltd and Apple Italia S.r.l. (hereinafter “Apple”) for abuse of a dominant position. Apple breached article 102 of the TFEU in the market for the supply to developers of platforms for the online distribution of apps to iOS users. In this market, Apple holds a super-dominant position through its App Store. The Authority conducted a complex investigation in coordination with the European Commission, other national competition authorities and the Italian Data Protection Authority. The Authority’s findings confirmed the restrictive nature - from a competition-law perspective - of the App Tracking Transparency (“ATT”) policy, i.e. the privacy rules imposed by Apple for iOS devices, as of April 2021, on third-party developers of apps distributed through the App Store. 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. However, such prompt does not meet privacy legislation requirements, forcing developers to double the consent request for the same purpose. The Authority established that the terms of the ATT policy are imposed unilaterally and harm the interests of Apple’s commercial partners. The terms were also found to be disproportionate to the achievement of the company’s stated data protection objectives. Since user data are a key input for personalised online advertising, the double consent request that inevitably arises from the ATT policy, as implemented, restricts the collection, linking and use of such data. 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 double consent request renders the ATT policy disproportionate, since Apple should have ensured the same level of privacy protection for users by allowing developers to obtain consent to profiling in a single step. Rome, 22 December 2025

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