Not sure why nobody else is asking this, but what is the evidence? Did an investigation reveal that this actually was the reason for the App Store rejection?
This was an antitrust ruling, so chances are that the process was something like:
- app developer (here, the giant state-backed energy company ENEL) complains to antitrust authority about getting denied access to store
- authority asks Google to justify itself
- Google makes a very weak argument, refuses to disclose the internal decision-making process that resulted in blocking access
- authority goes “oh really?”, proceeds to slap Google with a fine
Now Google can decide whether they want to take this to court (which, being Italy, will probably take 5 to 10 years); pay the fine and allow ENEL in; or just ignore the ruling and dare the state to slap them harder (which again, would probably mean a good 5+ years will pass before sanctions are actually enacted, but might result in higher fines).
- app developer (here, the giant state-backed energy company ENEL) complains to antitrust authority about getting denied access to store
- authority asks Google to justify itself
- Google makes a very weak argument, refuses to disclose the internal decision-making process that resulted in blocking access
- authority goes “oh really?”, proceeds to slap Google with a fine
Now Google can decide whether they want to take this to court (which, being Italy, will probably take 5 to 10 years); pay the fine and allow ENEL in; or just ignore the ruling and dare the state to slap them harder (which again, would probably mean a good 5+ years will pass before sanctions are actually enacted, but might result in higher fines).