Italy's antitrust agency opens probe into Apple App Store

Italian antitrust agency AGCM has opened an investigation into Apple, alleging that the company disadvantages third-party developers with restrictive policies.

Apple is under another round of antitrust investigations, as Italy's antitrust watchdog has begun scrutinizing Apple's App Store policies concerning third-party developers.

According to Reuters, the agency said that Apple imposes "a more restrictive privacy policy" on third-party developers than it does to itself.

AGCM also alleges that developers aren't given sufficient data about the success of their ad campaigns. The practice could force competitors away from distributing apps via the App Store, which could benefit Apple's first-party apps.

Apple could risk a fine of up to 10% of its annual turnover if it is found guilty of abuse of the market.

On Wednesday, European Union officials ramped up a probe into Apple. They believe that Apple's tight restrictions on the iPhone's built-in NFC chip to Apple Pay make it impossible for third-party companies to break into the mobile payment market.

In February, the US Department of Justice escalated its antitrust investigation against Apple as it seeks to determine if App Store rules are disadvantageous to competitors.

6 Comments

camber 26 comments · 9 Years

About 1 year ago

Why is it in all these investigations by the various countries involved, think they have the legal right to levy fines based on the offending corporation's world wide income? That is an inherently unreasonable position! But, then again how often has any government been accused of acting reasonably?

darelrex 139 comments · 11 Years

"the agency said that Apple imposes 'a more restrictive privacy policy' on third-party developers than it does to itself."

Yes, that's right. If I choose to bank at Chase, then Chase is going to know my name, address, phone, and all about my accounts and how much money is in each one. But all those third-party vendors I use my Chase card to purchase from? They won't get all that info, at least not without my permission.

Duh, of course if I choose to use an Apple iPhone, Apple is going to have much greater access to my personal info than any third-party app creator. C'mon. Did anyone ever think it could be otherwise?

ApplePoor 303 comments · 5 Years

If these brilliant others were so smart, where were they when Apple spent lots of money developing their ideas into a working product?

Oh, that’s right, they are entitled because they breathe air and expended zero money to have complete access to all if Apple’s propriety and patented work.

Apple products do not have a monopoly on the world of innovation, just on their products. Ford and GM do not have to share their secrets and there is no bitching in that world about their monopoly of their designs

avon b7 8010 comments · 20 Years

camber said:

Why is it in all these investigations by the various countries involved, think they have the legal right to levy fines based on the offending corporation's world wide income? That is an inherently unreasonable position! But, then again how often has any government been accused of acting reasonably?

It is entirely reasonable and fully explained in the relevant sections of various EU web sites.

chasm 3595 comments · 10 Years

darelrex said:

"the agency said that Apple imposes 'a more restrictive privacy policy' on third-party developers than it does to itself."

Yes, that's right. If I choose to bank at Chase, then Chase is going to know my name, address, phone, and all about my accounts and how much money is in each one. But all those third-party vendors I use my Chase card to purchase from? They won't get all that info, at least not without my permission.

I think you’ve misunderstood the article somewhat. Putting aside the other EU and US investigations, the Italian one is specifically responding to complaints that Apple unfairly withholds metrics about the success rate of the ads that run in the App Store — data that Apple does have access to, but that the advertising developers do not.

This would not under any circumstances be as specific as “here’s Darelrex’s card details and home phone number,” it would be more like “50 percent of the people who saw your ad clicked on it, specifically in these countries.” IOW, aggregate data that Apple collects, but does not break down as specifically as advertising developers would like.

The Italian investigation seems to be presuming that Apple does collect a far more granular level of detail — and perhaps it does — but uses that granularity for a competitive advantage. That, I personally doubt — but that’s not outside the realm of possibility, so it seems to me that the accusation (by the advertisers, not Italy) is worthy of investigating.