Italy has issued $11.3 million (€10 million) fines to both Apple and Google over what the country's antitrust authority, the AGCM, describes in a translated statement as "aggressive practices regarding the acquisition and use of consumer data" that violate its Consumer Code.
The AGCM says it found two violations of the Consumer Code: "One for lack of information and another for aggressive practices related to the acquisition and use of consumer data for commercial purposes." The resulting €10 million fines are the maximum it's allowed to issue.
Google is accused of failing to provide enough information about how personal data will be used when people are creating accounts or using its services. Apple is said to be similarly tight-lipped about how it uses customer data when people create Apple IDs or use its digital marketplaces.
That covers the first violation of the Consumer Code. The second has to do with both companies purportedly designing their account creation processes in a way that makes sharing personal data—which they can then use for a variety of commercial purposes—the default.
TechCrunch reports that Apple and Google plan to appeal the fines and have denied any wrongdoing. If that sounds familiar, it's probably because Apple made a similar claim on Nov. 23 after the AGCM issued a $225 million (€200 million) fine to it and Amazon over Beats sales.
Neither Apple nor Google immediately responded to requests for comment.