Apple fined $115m for App Store privacy violations

Italy’s competition authority (AGCM) has fined United States technology giant Apple and two of its divisions 98.6 million euros ($115.53 million) over alleged abuse of their dominant position in the mobile app market.

The regulator announced this on Monday, December 22, 2025, saying the group allegedly violated European regulations with Apple’s App Store, where it holds an “absolute dominance” in dealing with third-party developers.

The watchdog opened the probe into the technology giant in May 2023, claiming the company penalised third-party app developers by imposing “a more restrictive privacy policy” on them from April 2021.

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.

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AGCM noted 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 AGCM stated, adding that the process does not comply with privacy regulations.

The AGCM added that its investigation had been complex and carried out in coordination with the European Commission and other international antitrust regulators.

The firm, however, told Reuters it will appeal the regulator’s decision and reiterated its commitment “to defend strong privacy protections”.

The Star