Italy’s Competition Authority (AGCM) slapped Apple with a hefty €98.6 million fine—about $115 million—on December 22, 2025, targeting the tech giant’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy for abusing its ironclad dominance in iOS app distribution. Launched with iOS 14.5 in April 2021, ATT forces apps to pop up a prompt asking users for permission before tracking their activity across other apps and websites for personalized ads. Regulators ruled this creates a punishing “double consent” trap: developers must use Apple’s mandatory screen plus their own to fully comply with GDPR and EU privacy rules, slamming smaller studios with extra coding headaches, costs, and user drop-offs that gut ad revenues.
The probe, kicked off in May 2023 and ramped up in October 2024, exposed how Apple’s ATT prompt doesn’t cut it as standalone legal consent. With over 80% of users initially opting out, free apps relying on targeted ads saw business models crumble, hitting developers, advertisers, and ad networks hard. Small outfits suffered most, facing implementation nightmares that stifled innovation and raised entry barriers in Apple’s walled garden, where it reigns as the sole App Store gatekeeper.
Apple’s Unfair Gains Exposed
Apple cashes in big time: desperate developers hike commissions to offset losses, padding App Store profits, while Apple’s own ad empire dodges the same prompts by claiming no cross-app snooping—leading to surging revenues and ad volumes for Cupertino. This self-serving setup violates EU competition law (Article 102 TFEU), handing Apple preferential treatment that warps markets. Hard data showed revenue plunges for rivals and cost spikes for advertisers, proving real-world damage beyond theoretical harm.
The AGCM backs privacy pushes beyond bare-minimum rules but calls ATT “extremely burdensome” and disproportionate, a tool for entrenching power rather than pure user defense. Without fixes, it keeps choking digital ad ecosystems powering mobile apps. Apple must ditch the double-dip consent to level the field.
Apple Fires Back on Privacy Grounds
Apple hit back fast, hailing privacy as a “fundamental human right” and ATT as a dead-simple user shield against trackers. Rules bind everyone equally, they say, earning nods from advocates and Italy’s Garante watchdog. The fine? A misguided win for “ad tech companies and data brokers” craving user data, per Apple, which vows a fierce appeal to protect iOS safeguards.
Europe’s Crackdown Intensifies
This stings amid Apple’s EU headache parade: fat fines from France, Netherlands, Spain over App Store squeezes. ATT’s opt-out wave rocked ad giants like Meta, who cry foul on free services, shoving apps to subs. Developers crave one-and-done consent blending privacy with paychecks; regulators want parity, maybe sidelining Apple’s ad perks.
Digital Markets Act looms large with Apple as gatekeeper, priming more DMA clashes. This pits privacy breakthroughs against competition purity in closed systems. Fixes could streamline ATT—optional prompts? Self-ad parity?—rippling to app economies. Big Tech’s innovation clashes with fair play demands, with users caught balancing data shields and app variety. Europe’s resolve signals App Store overhauls ahead, forcing giants to tweak without neutering defenses.
