Apple (News - Alert) is apparently challenging a new ruling by the AGCM – Italy’s national competition authority – which said the U.S.-based company did not fully comply with its earlier ruling related to consumer warranties. New fines against the company are possible.

The authority ordered Apple to offer a free, two-year warranty or likely pay $378,200 in fines and/or temporarily close its Italian operations, according to news reports.Reuters said that the AGCM fined Apple over $1.1 million late last year after it ruled the company did not offer a free product guarantee to consumers – as required in Italy. Customers were not told details on the government-required product protection plan, according to TMCnet.

In response to the most recent statement from AGCM, Apple issued a statement this week that said, "We have introduced a number of measures to address the Italian competition authority concerns and we disagree with their latest complaint," Reuters (News - Alert) reported.

Late last year, AGCM announced the fines against Apple for “unfair commercial practices to the detriment of consumers.”

“The Apple group operating in Italy was not fully applying the statutory two-year vendors warranty for consumers and … the information being provided on Apple's pay-based supplemental services was unclear,” according to the AGCM statement.

The Italian authority ruled that Apple failed to tell customers they had two free years of assistance according to the laws of Italy – beyond a separate corporate plan, Reuters reported. Apple instead urged customers to purchase the "AppleCare Protection Plan," and failed to clarify “it overlapped with the free assistance required by law,” TMCnet said.

In December, Apple Sales International, Apple Italia S.r.l. and Apple Retail Italia were accused of two unfair commercial practices, AGCM said. Informing consumers about the AppleCare Protection Plan without details on the two-year warranty (under Italian law) led consumers “to sign an additional contract whenever the 'coverage' of the pay-based service overlapped with the free statutory warranty provided for in the Consumer Code,” the AGCM charged.

Apple was also forced to notify consumers about the issue by placing some of the antitrust resolution on the company’s website.

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