The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced “strategic market status (SMS) investigations” for mobile ecosystems.
Two investigations – one into Apple and another into Google – will assess in parallel these firms’ position in their respective “mobile ecosystems”which include the operating systems, app stores and browsers that operate on mobile devices. The investigations will explore the impact on people who use mobile devices and the thousands of businesses developing innovative services or content such as apps for these devices, according to CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell.
He says the issues that will form part of the CMA’s investigations include:
- The extent of competition between and within Apple’s and Google’s mobile ecosystems. The CMA will assess how competition is working across Apple’s and Google’s mobile ecosystems and what barriers may be preventing other competitors from offering rival products and services on Apple’s and Google’s platforms.
- Possible leveraging of Apple’s and Google’s market power into other activities. This will include investigating whether Apple or Google are using their position in operating systems, app distribution or browsers to favour their own apps and services, which often come pre-installed and prominently placed on iOS and Android devices.
- Potential exploitative conduct. This will include investigating whether Apple or Google are requiring app developers to sign up to unfair terms and conditions as a condition of distributing their apps on Apple’s and Google’s app stores; and whether users may be presented with ‘choice architecture’ which makes it difficult to make active choices about which apps they are using on mobile devices.
Potential conduct requirements could include, for example, requiring Apple or Google to open up access to key functionality needed by other apps to operate on mobile devices; or making it possible for users to download apps and pay for in-app content more easily outside of Apple’s and Google’s own app stores.
Cardell says the CMA “will take a proportionate and transparent approach to this investigation and will now focus on engaging a wide range of stakeholders, including device manufacturers, software developers and user groups – as well as gathering evidence from Apple and Google before reaching a decision by the end of October 2025.”
