Italian court dismisses Google's appeal against regulatory fines and accepts Apple's appeal

CTOnews.com, Nov. 19 (Xinhua)-- an Italian administrative court on Friday rejected Alphabet's Google appeal against the Italian antitrust authorities' decision to fine the group, but accepted the request of iPhone maker Apple. Neither Google nor Apple had immediate comment.

CTOnews.com learned that Italian antitrust regulators fined Google and Apple 10 million euros (73.7 million yuan) last year, claiming that the two technology groups did not provide "clear and immediate information" on how they collected and used the data of people accessing their services.

In November last year, the Italian Competition and Market Authority conducted two investigations into Google Ireland and Apple Distribution International, both of which were fined 10 million euros.

The reason is that they violate the transparency principle of the Consumer Law when obtaining and using user data for commercial purposes. Although neither of the two companies provided consumers with enough information about data use, AGCM also questioned the data processing activities of Google and Apple, calling them "aggressive practices."

Italian regulators fined Google and Apple another 10 million euros each, saying the two companies did not specify how to collect and use user data.