The Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato – AGCM) has imposed a fine of €98,635,416.67 on Apple Inc., Apple Distribution International Ltd, and Apple Italia S.r.l. for abuse of a dominant position, in breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
The infringement concerns the market for the supply of platforms to developers for the online distribution of applications to users of the iOS operating system. In this market, Apple holds an absolute dominant position through its App Store.
Following a complex investigation conducted in coordination with the European Commission, other national competition authorities, and the Italian Data Protection Authority, the AGCM found that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy constitutes a restriction of competition. Introduced in April 2021 within Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, the ATT policy imposes privacy rules on third-party app developers distributing their applications via the App Store.
Under the ATT framework, third-party developers are required to obtain a specific user consent for the collection and linking of data for advertising purposes through a consent interface mandated by Apple, the so-called ATT prompt. However, the Authority found that this prompt does not, in itself, meet the requirements set out under applicable privacy legislation. As a result, developers are compelled to request consent a second time for the same purpose, effectively duplicating the consent process.
The AGCM concluded that the conditions of the ATT policy are unilaterally imposed, harm the legitimate interests of Apple’s commercial partners, and are not proportionate to the stated objective of protecting user privacy. Given that access to user data is a key input for the provision of personalised online advertising, the duplication of consent requests—triggered by the way the ATT policy is implemented—significantly restricts the collection, linking, and use of such data. This, in turn, negatively affects app developers whose business models rely on advertising revenues, as well as advertisers and advertising intermediation platforms.
According to the Authority, the lack of proportionality stems from the fact that Apple could have ensured the same level of user privacy while allowing developers to obtain consent for profiling through a single, unified consent mechanism, rather than requiring multiple consent requests.