Apple and Google face potential regulatory intervention after the Competition and Markets Authority designated both tech giants with "strategic market status" over their mobile platforms. The UK watchdog determined that current platform rules could be "limiting innovation and competition" across the digital marketplace.
The designation covers the companies' mobile operating systems iOS and Android, their respective app stores, and mobile browsers. This regulatory status allows the CMA to force changes that could open up competition and benefit consumers and businesses.
Market data reveals the overwhelming dominance of these two platforms in Britain. Around 90% to 100% of UK mobile devices operate on either Apple or Google's mobile systems, with users typically remaining loyal to one ecosystem rather than switching between them.
Strategic status requirements
Companies receive strategic market status when they demonstrate substantial and entrenched market power alongside significant digital influence. The designation requires annual turnover exceeding £1 billion in the UK or £25 billion globally.
Will Hayter, executive director for digital markets at the CMA, said: "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." He confirmed the decision followed careful consideration of feedback received since the proposed designation.
This marks the second deployment of powers the CMA gained at the year's beginning to tackle digital market dominance. The regulator previously designated Google with strategic market status over its search engine services, including Chrome browser, in a separate investigation published earlier this month.
Tech giants respond
Google's senior competition director Oliver Bethell criticised the decision as "disappointing, disproportionate and unwarranted". He argued that "24,000 Android phone models from 1,300 phone manufacturers worldwide" face "intense competition" from Apple's iOS system in the UK market.
Bethell added: "The UK's new digital markets regime was introduced with the promise of being pro-growth and pro-innovation, with the CMA emphasising that its work would be highly targeted and proportionate. In this context, we simply do not see the rationale for today's designation decision."
Apple's spokeswoman warned against following European regulatory approaches. She said: "Apple faces fierce competition in every market where we operate and we work tirelessly to create the best products, services and user experience. The UK's 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. We've seen the impact of regulation on Apple users in the EU and we urge the UK not to follow the same path."
Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
