(Telecompaper) Italy's anti-trust and competition regulator AGCM has announced a wide-ranging investigation into what it claims are the "unfair commercial practices" of US tech multinationals Apple, Google and Amazon and French game developer Gameloft in relation to mobile game apps. The AGCM will be looking into whether the four companies are misleading customers by advertising mobile game apps as "free", when the fact is that "subsequent purchases are required to continue playing", said the anti-trust watchdog in a statement. The regulator believes that the practice could be considered misleading because "consumers could wrongly believe that the game is entirely free and insufficient information seems to be provided on how to amend the settings to stop or limit the purchases within the app." The investigation is likely to be concluded before the end of the year and each of the companies could receive a maximum fine of EUR 5 million.