It's being reported today, prior to a formal press release, that Italy's antitrust agency AGCM said on Thursday it had opened a probe into U.S. technology giant Apple for alleged abuse of its dominant position in the apps market.

Reuters reports that "The watchdog said Apple penalized third-party app developers by imposing 'a more restrictive privacy policy' than it applies to itself, from April 2021.

Furthermore, external app developers are disadvantaged 'in terms of the quality of the data made available by Apple,' the AGCM said in its statement.

Under European Union competition law, companies found guilty of abuse of market dominance risk a fine of up to 10% of annual turnover." 

Reuters further notes that "According to the Italian watchdog, users of non-Apple apps have more visible and more strongly worded prompts to block data tracking.

Third-party app developers are also offered less comprehensive information about the success of their ads campaigns, the AGCM said.

"Apple's alleged discriminatory conduct may cause a fall in advertising revenues for third-party advertisers, to the benefit of Apple's commercial division," the authority said.

This may drive competitors away from the app development and distribution market, benefitting Apple's internal apps, its mobile devices, and its iOS operating system, it added. For more on this, read the full Reuters report.

In other Apple news, Bloomberg continually follows executives leaving Apple. The latest is Pete Distad, an executive in charge of its video and sports businesses. Apple is a high profile company and many companies are willing to pay big bucks to hire them away. This happens to every major tech company. If you find this of interest, then read the full BNN Bloomberg report.