Italy Antitrust Agency Fines Apple $116 Million Over Privacy Feature; Apple Announces Appeal

Italy’s antitrust authority fined Apple 98.6 million euros ($116 million) on 23 December 2025 after finding that operating its privacy feature restricted App Store competition, according to Associated Press. The agency said the issue lay not with the policy itself but with the double consent requirement imposed on third‑party app makers to comply with Europe’s privacy rules, calling the arrangement disproportionate to the data protection goal.

Apple said it strongly disagreed with the finding and would appeal, saying the feature, App Tracking Transparency (ATT), was designed to give users control over their data. The organisation noted that ATT began rolling out in April 2021 as part of an iOS update for iPhone and iPad. The Italy ruling mirrors a separate French antitrust action in March, which fined Apple 150 million euros over the same consent feature.