Italy's antitrust agency AGCM said on Thursday it had opened a probe into US technology giant Apple Inc for alleged abuse of its dominant position in the apps market.
The watchdog said Apple penalised third-party app developers
by imposing "a more restrictive privacy policy" than it applies to
itself, from April 2021.
Furthermore, external app developers are disadvantaged
"in terms of the quality of the data made available by Apple," the
AGCM said in its statement.
In an emailed statement to Reuters, Apple said it applies privacy rules "equally to all developers, including Apple".
"We will continue to engage constructively with the
AGCM to address any of their questions," the company added.
Under European Union competition law, companies found guilty
of abuse of market dominance risk a fine of up to 10 percent of annual
turnover.
Apple and other US tech giants have come under repeated
scrutiny from European regulators.
On Wednesday, the European Commission said it was seeking
more information on Apple's mobile payment system as part of an ongoing
antitrust case against the iPhone maker.
ITALIAN CASE
According to the Italian watchdog, users of non-Apple apps
have more visible and more strongly worded prompts to block data tracking.
Third-party app developers are also offered less
comprehensive information about the success of their ad campaigns, the AGCM said.
"Apple's alleged discriminatory conduct may cause a
fall in advertising revenues for third-party advertisers, to the benefit of
Apple's commercial division," the authority said.
This may drive competitors away from the app development and
distribution market, benefitting Apple's internal apps, mobile devices, and iOS
operating system, it added.
In 2021, e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc was handed a fine
by the AGCM for alleged abuse of a dominant position in the Italian market to
favour the adoption of its own logistics service. © Reuters
0 comments:
Post a Comment