Italy fines Apple $115 million

Yesterday, the Italian Competition Authority announced that it had fined Apple more than $115.69 million (98.6 million euros) on charges of “abusing its dominant position in the market,” while the American company confirmed that it intends to appeal the decision.

The authority explained, in a statement, that Apple violated the competition law in the application creators market.

She added: “Apple enjoys an absolute dominance in this market through its application store.”

The Italian authority indicated that Apple also imposed very restrictive conditions regarding protecting users’ privacy in the context of competition.

The authority concluded that these conditions imposed by Apple were unilateral, harmful to the interests of its business partners, and were disproportionate to the goal of protecting privacy.

On the other hand, Apple expressed, in a statement, its “strong opposition to the decision of the Italian Competition Authority,” and announced its intention to appeal the decision.

The company asserts that the privacy protection rules “are applied equally to various developers, including Apple, have been adopted by our customers, and have won the approval of privacy advocates and data protection authorities around the world.”