Apple fined $115M over “burdensome” App Store privacy rules
▼ Summary
– Apple was fined $115 million by Italy’s competition authority for allegedly abusing its App Store dominance to harm third-party developers.
– The regulator stated that Apple’s 2021 App Tracking Transparency policy forced developers to obtain user consent twice for the same data collection.
– This “double consent” requirement was deemed burdensome and harmful, especially to small developers, as it reduced user opt-ins and hurt ad revenue.
– Apple may have benefited from the policy through higher App Store commissions and the growth of its own, less restricted, advertising service.
– The authority concluded Apple should have allowed single-step consent for user profiling to provide equal privacy protection without disproportionate burdens.
Italy’s competition regulator has imposed a significant financial penalty on Apple, alleging the company used its powerful market position to impose unfair privacy rules on third-party app developers. The $115 million fine centers on Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, introduced in 2021, which the authority claims created an uneven playing field that ultimately harmed developers while benefiting Apple’s own business interests.
The core of the dispute involves what the Italian Competition Authority describes as a “burdensome” requirement for double consent. Under Apple’s ATT policy, third-party developers are forced to present users with two separate prompts seeking permission for data tracking. The regulator argues this process is disproportionate and unnecessarily complex, placing a heavier burden on smaller developers who rely on advertising revenue. Since the policy’s implementation, many users have chosen to opt out of personalized ads, directly impacting developer earnings.
Critically, the investigation suggests Apple may have gained a competitive advantage from this arrangement. The authority notes that as developers’ ad revenues declined, Apple potentially benefited through higher commissions collected via the App Store. Furthermore, the company’s own advertising services, which operate under different, less stringent rules, reportedly saw increased revenue and ad volumes. The regulator’s statement indicates that revenues from App Store services grew following ATT’s adoption, partly because developers paid more in commissions.
The ruling concludes that Apple’s approach was not the only way to achieve its stated privacy goals. The authority asserts that user privacy could have been protected just as effectively by allowing developers to obtain necessary consent in a single, streamlined step. By maintaining the dual-prompt system, Apple created a disproportionate barrier for third-party businesses without delivering a corresponding increase in user data protection.
This intervention aims to correct what is seen as an abuse of Apple’s dominant position. Without regulatory action, the company would have continued enforcing a policy deemed harmful to the competitive landscape. The fine underscores growing global scrutiny over how major platform operators design rules that can simultaneously advantage their own services while disadvantaging independent developers who depend on those same platforms to reach customers.
(Source: Ars Technica)
