Apple has been fined €98.6 million ($116 million) by Italy’s antitrust authority after finding that the company’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy framework restricted App Store competition.
The Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, or AGCM) said the company’s “absolute dominant position” in app distribution allowed it to “unilaterally impose” the ATT rules on third-party app developers, without consulting with them beforehand. The investigation was launched in May 2023.
The AGCM said it’s not calling into question Apple’s decision to adopt safeguards designed to enhance users’ privacy on iOS, but rather it’s taking issue with the consent requirements that are excessively burdensome for developers and “disproportionate” to the stated objectives of ATT.
Specifically, this requires developers to serve both ATT- and GDPR-related permission prompts in apps for iPhone and iPad users in the E.U. to seek user permission before processing their data for personalized ads. In contrast, Apple’s own apps and services can obtain this permission in a single tap.
“In particular, third-party app developers are required to obtain specific consent for the collection and linking of data for advertising purposes through Apple’s ATT prompt,” AGCM said. “However, such a prompt does not meet privacy legislation requirements, forcing developers to double the consent request for the same purpose.”
The authority also said the double consent requirement that arises as a result of ATT harms third-party developers who rely on advertising, adding, “Apple should have ensured the same level of privacy protection for users by allowing developers to obtain consent to profiling in a single ‘Personalized Advertising’ prompt.
In a statement shared with Reuters, Apple said it will appeal the regulator’s decision and reiterated its commitment “to defend strong privacy protections.” It also said the rules apply equally to all developers, including Apple.
Apple introduced ATT in 2021 as a way for mobile apps to seek users’ explicit consent in order to access their device’s unique advertising identifier for tracking them across apps and websites for targeted advertising.
This is not the first time the privacy framework has run at odds with competition authorities. Back in March 2025, the company was also fined €150 million ($162 million) by France’s competition watchdog for using ATT to leverage its dominant market position in mobile app advertising.
Apple is also facing similar probes in Poland and Romania. Earlier this month, Germany’s antitrust authority said it was testing Apple’s proposed changes to ATT, which included changes to the text and formatting of the consent prompt while maintaining “core user benefits.”
The company is said to have agreed to introduce neutral consent prompts for both its own services and third-party apps, in addition to simplifying the consent process so that developers can obtain user permission in a manner that complies with data protection law.
Voters in Guinea and the Central African Republic will get to vote for president
On Sunday, citizens of Guinea and the Central African Republic (CAR) will go to the polls to elect their presidents for terms of office of seven years.
Both contests could, in theory, go on to run-off ballots. Yet in both, the incumbents are strong favourites, with observers predicting they will clinch victory outright in the first round with more than 50% of the vote.
But that’s where the similarities end.
The CAR, vast and landlocked, is one of Africa’s poorest countries, marred by chronic instability for decades, with a succession of armed groups motivated by a variety of local grievances, opportunities for racketeering or political ambitions.
From 2013 to 2016 it was only the intervention of African, French and then UN peacekeepers that averted a slide into deeper inter-communal violence.
The national government in Bangui, the riverside capital on the southern border, just across the water from the Democratic Republic of Congo, has often struggled to assert its authority in the distant outer-lying regions of the north or far east.
Despite these enduring fragilities, multi-party politics has mostly survived, with a fair degree of tolerance for opposition and protest.
There is a sense of national identity and this year has seen two of the most significant rebel groups drawn back into the peace process and starting to disarm and demobilise.
The country has a pioneering special court for trying human-rights crimes, staffed with a blend of national and international judges.
AFP via Getty Images
President Faustin-Archange Touadéra is hoping for a third term in office
President Faustin-Archange Touadéra is a mathematician and former university vice-chancellor.
He entered politics as prime minister under the putschist-turned elected head of state, François Bozizé.
Later, after a chaotic interlude of rebel rule and an uncertain transition, he was elected head of state as a post-conflict and consensual civil-society figure.
Today, approaching the end of his second term, Touadéra is seen as a far more political and partisan figure.
He bulldozed through constitutional reform to scrap term limits, allowing him to stand again. This has provoked a boycott by much, though not all, of the opposition.
Yet, contrary to widespread expectations, his most prominent electoral rival, Anicet-Georges Dologuélé, has been allowed to take part in the electoral race.
This contrasts with the situation in Guinea, on Africa’s west coast, where Gen Mamadi Doumbouya, leader of the September 2021 coup that deposed the 83-year old civilian President Alpha Condé, is now preparing to convert himself into a constitutionally elected ruler.
Although Doumbouya will face eight challengers at the ballot box, he has dominated the campaign, with his image plastered all over the streets of Conakry, Guinea’s capital city.
The most prominent opposition figure of the past 10 years, Cellou Dalein Diallo, with a big personal following among the large Peul community who account for about 40% of the electorate, has been excluded from the contest.
Despite these constraints on the political choice presented to voters, the return of an elected government will come as a great relief to the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), a regional bloc that promotes economic integration, democracy, and military cooperation among its members.
Almost a year ago, it suffered a blow with the withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger after the military regimes that had seized power in a wave of coups between 2020 and 2023 refused to comply with the bloc’s demands to commit to clear timeframes for the restoration of civilian rule.
AFP via Getty Images
From 2021 (L) to today (R) – Mamadi Doumbouya now wants to be a civilian president
Doumbouya made a different choice.
Although he kept good relations with the junta in neighbouring Mali, he has pursued a methodical constitutional review, which has laid the ground for Sunday’s vote, even if this has been delayed for longer than Ecowas originally wanted.
His approach to international relations also contrasts starkly with neighbouring regimes, who have cultivated close security ties with Russia and repudiated their previous close partnerships with France.
Doumbouya has maintained good relations with Western governments, particularly Paris. Officials in Conakry praise the French Development Agency as one of their most supportive partners.
Indeed, from the outset, the Doumbouya regime has been treated rather gently by both France and the West generally, and by Ecowas, despite a troubling human rights record.
His overthrow of Condé – who had staged a dubious constitutional referendum to allow himself the chance to stand for a third term and had overseen frequent bouts of security force brutality – was celebrated on the streets of Conakry and barely criticised abroad.
AFP via Getty Images
Gen Mamadi Doumbouya has dominated the build-up to the election
And even though his own rule saw youth protesters shot, and leading civil society activists Billo Bah and Foniké Mengué detained and never heard from since, regional and international reactions were muted.
West Africa has been shaken by coups and the breakaway of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger from Ecowas, as well as this month’s attempted putsch in Benin.
Guinea’s decision to stay in the bloc and restore elected government – even if it breaches Doumbouya’s earlier promise that no member of his junta would stand in the polls – has been greeted with quiet relief by many regional leaders and European governments, as a step towards reconsolidating normality.
With jihadist groups now disrupting daily life and trade across the south of Mali and Burkina Faso, the gradual progress towards constitutional stability in Guinea, despite persistent civil-rights concerns, has been welcomed.
The same goes for Touadéra’s bid for a third term in the CAR, a country slowly emerging from years of insecurity.
The UN peacekeeping force, Minusca, is helping the government to gradually restore basic administration and services, even to distant provincial towns.
The CAR still significantly relies on Russian military advice, but the president has taken time to rebuild good relations with France and maintain a close partnership with the EU and the UN.
With war-ravaged Sudan just over the north-eastern border, and deep fragilities still persistent at home, international partners are minded to support rather than criticise, despite the frustrations of those opponents who feel that a Touadéra third term would be illegitimate.
A pile-up involving at least 50 vehicles on a highway in central Japan has left two people dead and 26 injured, according to police.
The incident was caused by a crash between two trucks, sparking a chain reaction that set at least 10 vehicles on fire, local police said.
A 77-year-old woman from Tokyo was killed, and another body was discovered in the driver’s seat of a burnt-out truck. Five people were seriously injured and 21 suffered minor injuries, police said.
There was a heavy snow warning in place at the time of the crash. Police believe icy surfaces likely caused the trucks to skid on the roads.
The crash happened on the Kan-etsu Expressway in Minakami, Gunma prefecture, about 160km (100 miles) north-west of Tokyo, at about 19:30 local time (10:30 GMT) on 26 December.
It took about seven and a half hours to put out the fire, police said.
Following the incident, a section of the highway was closed, with a long line of vehicles, many charred beyond recognition, stuck in the outbound lane. Work is under way to tow them away.
A man in his 60s, whose vehicle was involved in the accident, told local media outlet NHK he heard a loud explosion from the far end of the pile-up and saw fire during the crash. The blaze then spread to other vehicles, he said.
He said he was evacuated to a nearby toll gate with about 50 other people and spent the night in the hallway there.
Nexco, which operates the road, said checks were needed to see if the surface was damaged by the fire.
The company is warning travellers not to use the highway.
