The UK's CMA plans a market investigation into Apple's cloud gaming restrictions via its App Store alongside Apple and Google's market power in mobile browsers
see the ongoing wrangles with Meta over Giphy @privacymatters : 1/ The @CMAgovUK has published its final report into the ‘Mobile ecosystems market study’ https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u k/ ... The report proposes a number of interventions and a market investigation reference wrt mobile browsers and cloud gaming (see Section 9 page 339) https://twitter.com/... @cmagovuk : ...we've continued to look at where we can take immediate action in the sector while we await new #digital powers.✔️ Find out more: https://www.gov.uk/... #Apple #Google #Tech Leo Ringer / @leoringer : Big news for Google and Apple today - the UK competition regulator, the CMA, is launching a market investigation into their “duopoly” on mobile ecosystems. These investigations can lead to serious action including structural separation. https://www.gov.uk/... Iain Martin / @_iainmartin : “Apple and Google “hold all the cards” with interventions needed to give innovators and competitors a fair chance to compete in mobile ecosystems” https://www.gov.uk/... The U.K's antitrust watchdog putting down a big marker here on Big TechJacob Parry / @jcbcp : .@CMAgovUK will launch a market investigation into mobile browsers and cloud gaming. Apple and Google “hold all the cards” and intervention likely necessary, says agency head https://www.gov.uk/...
GOV.UK
Context & Ripple Effects
The CMA had already signaled an inquiry into Apple and Google’s mobile ecosystems in 2021. Its final market-study report now identifies browser access and cloud-gaming distribution as areas for targeted intervention rather than leaving them within a broad ecosystem review.
Apple faces CMA scrutiny of the App Store rules affecting cloud-gaming services, while Apple and Google face parallel examination of their position in mobile browsers.
The CMA shifts from diagnosing mobile-ecosystem concerns to proposing interventions and a market-investigation reference, placing the companies’ platform policies under a more formal UK competition process.
Second-order effects
Cloud-gaming providers and mobile-browser competitors gain a regulatory channel to challenge the access conditions set by Apple and Google, rather than relying solely on the platforms’ existing rules.
Apple and Google must defend how their browser and app-distribution policies affect competition across services that depend on mobile-device access.
Third-order effects
If the CMA’s intervention path holds, mobile platforms will be treated less as self-governing product ecosystems and more as regulated gateways whose rules determine market access.
The case points toward competition oversight organized around specific platform bottlenecks—such as app distribution and browser access—rather than a single, general assessment of Big Tech scale.
The trend: UK digital competition policy is moving from broad studies of mobile ecosystems toward interventions aimed at contesting the gatekeeping rules of major platforms.
We're consulting on launching a market investigation into #Apple and #Google's power over: 📱 mobile browsers and ☁️ cloud gaming on mobile devices We're also taking action against Google in relation to its app store payment practices 💳 #Digital #Smartphones https://twitter.com/..…
Final report from @CMAgovUK: https://www.gov.uk/... I'm not sure what the UK govt can actually do here (and this is relevant to me, as I live in UK now), but I was pleased to read that security *isn't* a valid excuse for Apple to refuse other browser engines onto iOS. https://twi…
Breaking: UK antitrust regulator the CMA says its found Apple and Google run “an effective duopoly on mobile ecosystems” and now will consult on how it can use its powers to intervene in the market.
I'm impressed with the CMA's market studies and extensive detail in its 356 page report. Here's hoping that regulators will eventually force Apple to open up its App Store and lift iOS browser restrictions.
The CMA is also launching a separate competition law investigation into Google's restrictions on in-app payments via the Play Store, mirroring the investigation into the Apple App Store launched over a year ago.
“Apple and Google “hold all the cards” with interventions needed to give innovators and competitors a fair chance to compete in mobile ecosystems” https://www.gov.uk/... The U.K's antitrust watchdog putting down a big marker here on Big Tech
Big news for Google and Apple today - the UK competition regulator, the CMA, is launching a market investigation into their “duopoly” on mobile ecosystems. These investigations can lead to serious action including structural separation. https://www.gov.uk/...
UK regulator (CMA) is launching an investigation into Apple and Google's power over cloud gaming and mobile browsers. The CMA successfully forced Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony to remove their auto-renewal of subscriptions recently https://www.gov.uk/... https://twitter.com/...
.@CMAgovUK will launch a market investigation into mobile browsers and cloud gaming. Apple and Google “hold all the cards” and intervention likely necessary, says agency head https://www.gov.uk/...
The Competition and Markets Authority is now one of the most active antitrust regulators in the world and is clearly striking out on its own path from the EU/FTC ono Big Tech — see the ongoing wrangles with Meta over Giphy
The UK's CMA is launching a market investigation into Apple and Google over their “effective duopoly on mobile ecosystems.” https://www.gov.uk/... Part of the probe will look at how Apple has made it difficult for cloud gaming services to get past its strict App Store rules. 🎮
1/ The @CMAgovUK has published its final report into the ‘Mobile ecosystems market study’ https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u k/ ... The report proposes a number of interventions and a market investigation reference wrt mobile browsers and cloud gaming (see Section 9 page 339…
🇬🇧 Big News! The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (@CMAgovUK) has decided to open a Market Investigation into Mobile Browsers and Cloud Gaming and has published their final report. This is a MAJOR step towards the end of the #AppleBrowserBan. https://www.gov.uk/...
Excellent blog post by my colleague Tom Smith regarding the @CMAgovUK's market investigations references into browsers and cloud computing. Huge developments. Good for consumers and innovation. https://theplatformlaw.blog/ ...
@zsk Hi Zoe, I'm one of the people who organised https://open-web-advocacy.org/ and briefed CMA (and Australian, EU, US and Japanese regulators) about this. Happy to chat if you want.
The @CMAgovUK's report concludes that @Apple and @Google's ‘tight grip’ on app stores means that consumers are more likely to miss out on new innovations, have less choice, and face higher prices. More, here: https://appfairness.org/... #OpenTheAppStores
Based on @IDC data for a @CMAgovUK report on mobile ecosystems, @Android sales in the UK lean towards lower price points, while @Apple iOS sales are predominantly in the higher price points. This is the smartphone sales distribution in the UK by price point👇 https://twitter.com/.…
Apple and Google have too much power over phones and action is needed, UK watchdog says https://www.independent.co.uk/ ... “Apple...bans alternatives to its own browsing engine on its phones, making it much harder for other apps to distinguish themselves from the in-built Safari …
Apple banning cloud gaming apps like XBox Game Pass (for the spurious reason they can't review every game) and requiring every browser must use WebKit on iOS have both been declared anticompetitive by the UK's competition authority. The monopoly👑is $AAPL https://9to5mac.com/...
@egs_enthusiast @tomwarren Apple strategy is to ignore the law until they are absolutely forced by courts or regulators to change their practices, and to deploy a massive team of lawyers and lobbyists to delay that reckoning for as long as possible.
The restriction that iOS browser apps must use Apple's own WebKit browser engine, has been declared to be anticompetitive by the UK competition watchdog. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
The CMA has led and others are following (EU, Japan, US). There's hope yet that Apple, Google, and Facebook's efforts to snuff out the mobile web will fail. For background (from last year): https://infrequently.org/... https://twitter.com/...
We've written extensively about how Apple has invented new self-serving App Store rules just to block cloud gaming (see thread above). Now the UK might do something about it: https://twitter.com/...
Significant stuff coming from CMA after market study of mobile ecosystems found evidence of “Apple & Google's stranglehold on the market” leading to “supra-competitive returns”. Apple seems bigger concern but Google still found to wield strong power re rule setting & market power…
Busy day for the UK's competition watchdog @CMAgovUK - opens a fresh probe into Google's Play Store, announces a market investigation into mobile browsers & cloud gaming, & accuses Apple & Google of exercising a “stranglehold” over mobile ecosystems. https://www.gov.uk/...
...we've continued to look at where we can take immediate action in the sector while we await new #digital powers.✔️ Find out more: https://www.gov.uk/... #Apple #Google #Tech