Italy antitrust agency fines Apple US$116 million over privacy feature; Apple announces appeal

An Apple logo adorns the facade of the downtown Brooklyn Apple store on March 14, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

ROME — Italy’s antitrust authority fined Apple 98.6 million euros ($116 million) on Monday after determining that operating one of its privacy features restricted App Store competition. Apple said it would appeal the sanction.

Apple abused its dominant position with its App Tracking Transparency, ATT, policy, which forces apps to obtain permission before collecting data to target users with personalized ads, the antitrust authority said in a statement.

The company rolled out ATT starting in April 2021 as part of an update to the operating system powering the iPhone and iPad. While the feature was designed to tighten up privacy, it faced criticism from Big Tech rivals that it would make it harder for smaller apps to survive without charging consumers.

The authority didn’t criticize the policy per se, but the fact that the Apple system requires third-party app makers to ask users for consent twice in order to comply with Europe’s strict privacy rules.

“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 authority said.

The authority said that the double consent required was “disproportionate” to the stated goal of data protection.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said it strongly disagreed with the finding and would appeal it, saying it disregarded the privacy protections of the policy “in favor of ad tech companies and data brokers who want unfettered access to users’ personal data.”

“At Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right, and we created App Tracking Transparency to give users a simple way to control whether companies can track their activity across other apps and websites,” Apple said in a statement. “These rules apply equally to all developers, including Apple, and have been embraced by our customers and praised by privacy advocates and data protection authorities around the world.”

The Italy antitrust finding is similar to one by the French antitrust watchdog, which in March fined Apple 150 million euros ($162 million) over the consent feature.

The Associated Press