The regulator said the group allegedly violated European regulations with Apple’s App Store, where it holds an “absolute dominance” in dealing with third-party developers.
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Apple said in a statement it “strongly disagrees” with the decision that it claims “disregards the important privacy protections” provided by the company’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt.
AGCM said that Apple required third-party developers to obtain specific consent for data collection and linking data for advertising purposes through the ATT screen imposed by the company.
“The terms of the ATT policy are imposed unilaterally, they are detrimental to the interests of Apple’s business partners and are not proportionate to achieving the objective of privacy, as claimed by the company,” the regulator said in a statement, adding the process does not comply with privacy regulations.
Developers were additionally forced to duplicate consent requests for the same purpose, it added.
ATT was created “to give users a simple way to control whether companies can track their activity across other apps and websites,” the tech company said, adding the rules apply equally to all developers, including Apple.
The firm will appeal the regulator’s decision and reiterated its commitment “to defend strong privacy protections”.
The AGCM said that its investigation had been complex and carried out in coordination with the European Commission and other international antitrust regulators.
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Reporting by Cristina Carlevaro and Elvira Pollina, editing by Giulia Segreti, Kirsten Donovan
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