Apple ends up in the crosshairs of the Italian antitrust. The investigation launched by the AGCM against Apple concerns the alleged abuse of a dominant position in the market of applications for iOS and similar systems such as iPadOS, an issue not new to the news that the Cupertino giant is procuring many thoughts in various parts of the world.
The procedure initiated by the Italian watchdog is similar, in some passages identical, to what Apple is facing in Germany and also in France. At the base there is the privacy policy adopted since April two years ago, with which Apple treats third-party developers differently than it does with itself. In other words, the dynamics that regulate the relationship between users and developers apply to everyone except for those who wrote those rules, namely Apple.
The AGCM cites the warning that appears when you first open an app: it asks if you want to allow you to track the activities carried out in the apps and on the sites of other companies for advertising purposes, for “a personalized advertising experience”. An appreciable precaution, too bad nothing is asked at the first opening of an app developed by Apple. Holding double standards, underlines the AGCM, does not end with this aspect:
“Third-party developers and advertisers appear to be at a disadvantage in terms of the quality and detail of the data provided by Apple and related to the effectiveness of advertising campaigns on their applications. This happens because of the technical features of the programming interface they can access – SkadNetwork – which appears much less effective than Apple Ads Attribution, the tool that Apple adopts for itself.”
Even if you consent to profiling, you get lower quality data from it than Apple collects for yourself, which may cause third-party advertisers’ advertising revenue to decline to the benefit of your business division. The AGCM has given the lawyers of the interested parties 60 days to request to be heard and has established that the proceedings must be concluded by 3 May 2024.