Apple hit with $115M for “extremely burdensome” App Store privacy policy

Apple has been fined $115 million by Italy's competition authority for allegedly misusing its dominant market position to disadvantage third-party developers within its App Store. The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) released a statement highlighting that Apple's 'App Tracking Transparency' (ATT) policy, implemented in 2021, has imposed a requirement for developers to obtain consent from users twice for the same data collection process. Regulators described this 'double consent' requirement as not only 'extremely burdensome' but also detrimental, particularly for smaller developers who have faced significant challenges in generating advertising revenue since the policy's introduction. Users have increasingly opted out of personalized ads, leading to a decline in income for these developers. The ICA noted that Apple's ATT policy might have inadvertently boosted the company’s revenue from the App Store, as it allowed Apple to collect higher commissions from developers while also enhancing its own advertising services. Following the implementation of ATT, revenues from App Store services saw a notable increase, benefiting Apple’s advertising division which operates under less stringent regulations. Without regulatory intervention, the ICA warned that Apple would persist in demanding an additional consent screen from third-party developers, a requirement deemed disproportionate to the intended data protection goals. The authority concluded that Apple should have simplified the consent process to ensure equal privacy protection for users while allowing developers to obtain permissions in a single step.