The competition authority in Italy announced on Thursday that it had opened an investigation against Apple on suspicion of “abusing a dominant position” in the market for applications on its smartphones and tablets.
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The American giant “has adopted more restrictive privacy measures for third-party application developers than those it applies for itself,” the Competition Authority and the Market (AGCM) said in a statement.
According to AGCM, third-party developers and advertisers would also be “disadvantaged with regard to the data provided by Apple”.
These “potentially discriminatory practices” can eat into third-party developers’ revenues and prevent competitors from entering or staying in the market, benefiting applications developed by Apple, the agency adds.
Apple, which posted net income of $24 billion in the first quarter, is already in the crosshairs of competition authorities in Europe.
In May 2022, the European Commission accused the American giant of blocking competition in contactless payment systems by forcing the Apple Pay service on users of its mobile phones.