UK Watchdog Forces Changes to Apple and Google App Stores
The UK’s competition watchdog has designated Apple and Google with “strategic market status,” compelling potential changes to their mobile platforms and app stores. This landmark decision aims to foster innovation and competition that could benefit millions of consumers and businesses.
Key Takeaways
- Apple and Google face mandatory platform changes after UK regulator ruling
- Both companies now hold “strategic market status” under new digital markets regime
- 90-100% of UK mobile devices run on Apple or Google platforms
- CMA gains intervention powers to promote competition
Market Dominance Investigation
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that Apple and Google’s substantial market power through their platforms could be “limiting innovation and competition.” Between 90-100% of UK smartphones run on either iOS or Android systems, with users unlikely to switch between platforms.
Will Hayter, CMA’s executive director for digital markets, stated: “Apple and Google’s mobile platforms are used by thousands of businesses right across the economy to market and sell products and services to millions of customers, but the platforms’ rules may be limiting innovation and competition.”
What Strategic Market Status Means
Companies designated with strategic market status must have substantial and entrenched market power, significant digital influence, and turnover exceeding £1 billion in the UK or £25 billion globally. This classification empowers the CMA to intervene directly in their operations.
Tech Giants Push Back
Google’s senior competition director Oliver Bethell criticized the decision as “disappointing, disproportionate and unwarranted.” He argued that Android faces “intense competition” from iOS, with 24,000 Android phone models from 1,300 manufacturers worldwide.
Apple warned that UK adoption of “EU-style rules would undermine that, leaving users with weaker privacy and security, delayed access to new features, and a fragmented, less seamless experience.” The company urged the UK not to follow the EU’s regulatory path.
The CMA gained new powers earlier this year to regulate dominant digital market players, with this marking one of the first major applications of these authorities.
