MILAN, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Italy's competition authority

(AGCM) said on Monday it had fined U.S technology giant Apple ( AAPL )

and two of its divisions 98.6 ‌million euros ($115.53

million) over alleged abuse of their dominant position in ​the

mobile app market.

The regulator said the group allegedly ‍violated European

regulations with Apple's ( AAPL ) App Store, ⁠where it ⁠holds an "absolute

dominance" in dealing with third-party developers.

Apple ( AAPL ) did not immediately respond ‌to a request for ​comment.

The watchdog opened the probe into the technology giant in May

2023, claiming the ⁠company penalised third-party app ‍developers

by ​imposing "a more restrictive privacy policy" on them from

April 2021.

AGCM said that Apple ( AAPL ) required third-party developers to

obtain ‍specific consent for data collection and linking data for

advertising purposes through a screen imposed by Apple ( AAPL ), known as

the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt.

"The terms of the ATT policy are imposed unilaterally, ​they

are ‍detrimental to the interests of Apple's ( AAPL ) business partners

and are not proportionate to achieving the ​objective of privacy,

as claimed by the company," the regulator said in a statement,

adding the process does not comply with privacy regulations.

Developers were additionally forced to duplicate consent

requests for the same purpose, it added.

The AGCM said that ​its investigation had been complex and

carried out in coordination with the European Commission and

other international competition antitrust regulators.

($1 = 0.8535 ‍euros)