An Italian administrative court on Friday rejected an appeal by Alphabet’s Google against a decision by Italian antitrust authorities to fine the group, but accepted a request from iPhone maker Apple. Neither Google nor Apple was immediately available for comment.
Italy’s antitrust regulator last year fined Google and Apple 10 million euros (about 73.7 million yuan) each for failing to provide “clear and immediate information” about how they collect and use data on people who access their services.
In November last year, the Italian Competition and Markets Authority opened two investigations against Google Ireland Ltd. and Apple Distribution International Ltd. and imposed fines of 10 million euros in both cases.
The reason was that they had violated the transparency principles of the Consumer Code when acquiring and using user data for commercial purposes. While both companies were found to have failed to provide consumers with sufficient information about the use of data, the AGCM also challenged the data processing activities of Google and Apple, calling them “aggressive practices”.
