Topline
Italy’s antitrust watchdog on Thursday said it had launched an investigation into Apple for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the apps market, the latest effort by regulators worldwide to rein in big tech.
Italy’s antitrust watchdog is investigating Apple for its app behavior.
Key Facts
Italy’s competition authority, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), said Apple adopts a more stringent privacy policy for third-party app developers than it applies to itself.
The watchdog said the double standard, which has been in place since April 2021, means users of non-Apple apps receive more prominent prompts needed to secure consent for data tracking from third-party developers than it does from Apple’s products.
The prompts on third-party apps are also more strongly worded than those on native Apple apps, the regulator added, and contain stronger language that dissuades users from opting in to tracking.
Third-party app developers are also less able to profile users and monitor the success of ad campaigns than Apple as the tech giant gives them access to less comprehensive tools—that give less information—than it uses itself, AGCM said.
Apple’s behavior disadvantages third-party developers to its own benefit, the regulator said, explaining that it could dampen ad revenues for third-party developers and drive competition away from its own products.
Apple did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
Key Background
In recent years, regulators around the world have stepped up efforts to curb the powers of big tech. European regulators have been especially active in this space and the bloc has some of the toughest rules in the world. The regulators have proven influential in shaping approaches to the industry globally, particularly when it comes to people’s data, with both competition and privacy watchdogs jockeying to take on cases. All big tech players, including Meta, Amazon and Alphabet, have been scrutinized. Apple is often targeted over its prominent position as gatekeeper for what can be used and installed on its popular range of mobile devices, computers and other tech using its iOS operating system, which gives it a dominant position in the market and has been the subject of numerous investigations before.
What To Watch For
Investigations of this nature can take a long time to complete, potentially many years. Additionally, any decision can be contested at multiple levels, further lengthening the time span. Penalties for antitrust violations in Europe can be severe and those found to have breached the European Union’s rules against abusing a dominant market position face a fine up to 10% of its annual turnover from the year before the decision. This is an upper limit, however, and fines are unlikely to climb that high. For Apple, which reported annual revenue of $394.3 billion for its 2022 financial year, a 10% fine would be nearly $40 billion.
Tangent
On Wednesday, the European Union’s powerful antitrust watchdog signaled it is taking a closer look at Apple’s mobile payment system and said it is gathering more information on the company’s use of a payments chip. The bloc issued formal charges against the tech giant last year alleging it unfairly restricted competition in the mobile wallets market on its devices.
Further Reading
Apple Tap-to-Pay Tech Gets Extra Round of EU Antitrust Scrutiny (Bloomberg)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/05/11/apple-faces-italian-antitrust-probe-over-alleged-app-market-abuse/