Italian regulators announced on Monday that they were launching an anti-competition investigation into the practices of several companies regarding their cloud services. Apple (NASDAQ: APPL), Dropbox (NASDAQ: DBX), and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) have all been named in the investigation.
The Autorità Garante Della Concorrenza e del Mercato, the Italian Competition Authority, is launching six related investigations into cloud storage services operated by several major tech firms after receiving complaints regarding their practices. Like several other investigations, past and present, from a European Union member state, Italy's investigation is looking into privacy concerns. Specifically, Italian regulators are looking into claims that tech companies failed to properly inform users how their services would use collected data.
A specific investigation is also looking into the contract contents Dropbox used with users. The Authority is looking to deduce if Dropbox adequately informed consumers on the procedure to withdraw from contracts.
"In particular, the misconduct investigations against Google and Apple relate to the failure or inappropriate indication, in the presentation of the service, of the activity of collecting and using for commercial purposes the data provided by you and the possible undue influence against consumers, which, in order to use the cloud storage service, would not be in a position to express to the operator the consent to the collection and use for commercial purposes of the information that concerns them." Said the Authority's translated release.
Italy has taken actions against tech companies in the past; just a few months ago in July, officials raided the offices of Apple and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) as part of an investigation into whether or not the two companies engaged in anti-competitive practices regarding the sale of Apple products on Amazon.
In general, the European Union has been taking a strong stance against tech companies over the last few years. Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) was pushed to alter its terms and conditions by European regulators after concerns of unclear wording; additionally, the social media giant is also facing an investigation into concerns of employee privacy. Apple is also facing an anti-competition investigation over concerns that its app store practices are stifling competition.