The Italian antitrust agency says Apple abuses its dominant market position with the App Store and has fined it $115 million having apparently misunderstood App Tracking Transparency.
Italy's Autorita Garante Della Concorrenza E Del Mercato (AGCM) competition authority began an investigation back in May 2023. At the time, it said this was in part because Apple imposed "a more restrictive privacy policy" on third-party developers than it does itself.
The privacy policy is Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which was in iOS 14.5 as a way to let users decide whether each specific app developer should be allowed to track their activity.
Now according to Reuters, the AGCM has concluded that this difference between Apple and its developers has been confirmed. The AGCM said Apple uses its "absolute dominance" in its dealings with developers, to require them to comply with ATT, while Apple itself does not.
What this means in practice is that developers must have Apple's ATT warning dialog pop up on a user's first use of the app. The user can then decide whether to allow tracking for that app, or not.
"The terms of the ATT policy are imposed unilaterally, they are detrimental to the interests of Apple's business partners," the ACGM said in a statement, "and are not proportionate to achieving the objective of privacy, as claimed by the company."
However, the claim that the ATT policy is unilaterally imposed on everyone except Apple, is a fallacy. Apple's own apps do not display the ATT popup because they do not track user activity.
Consequently, Apple has reportedly responded that it "strongly disagrees" with the decision. The company says that the regulator "disregards the important privacy protections" provided by ATT.
What happens next
Apple says it will appeal the decision and as yet it is not known how long that process may take. It's probable that Apple will not have to pay the $115 million fine until the appeal concludes.
The regulator's full 199-page ruling does also say (in translation) that Apple must "immediately cease the distortive behaviors." It must "refrain in future from engaging in conduct" that would infringe Italian antitrust law in the same way.
According to that ruling, Apple now has 90 days to report how it will comply with the AGCM's requirements. It's not clear whether this deadline will also be dependent on the appeals process.
A similar antitrust investigation into App Tracking Transparency is currently ongoing in Poland. However, that investigation, which started in November 2025, followed a previous one in 2021 by the country's regulators, which may yet be ongoing.
