Britain has moved to “loosen the grip” of Apple and Google in the smartphone market by designating them as having “strategic market status,” reports Reuters.
This would give the Competition and Markets Authority to demand specific changes to boost competition. The agency said Apple and Google’s mobile platforms were used by businesses right across the economy, but the platforms’ rules may be “limiting innovation and competition,” notes Reuters.
The CMA said its decision wasn’t a finding of wrongdoing and did not introduce any immediate requirements, but it would now consider “proportionate, targeted interventions” to ensure the platforms were open to effective competition.
This isn’t the first time the British government has tried to interfere with free market competition. In August Apple has warned that “EU-style rules” proposed by the UK competition watchdog “are bad for users and bad for developers,” the BBC reports.
In its statement, the tech giant argued that the CMA’s approach “undermines the privacy and security protections our users have come to expect, hampers our ability to innovate, and forces us to give away our technology for free to foreign competitors.”
It also says that EU laws have resulted in some Apple features and enhancements being delayed for European users. Apple argues that the UK risks similar hold-ups if the pushes ahead with plans designed to open up markets the regulator says is too dominated by Apple and Google.
What’s more, Reuters reports that Apple has beenhit with a complaint to European Union (EU) antitrust regulators by two civil rights groups over the terms and conditions of its App Store and devices for allegedly breaching landmark rules aimed at reining in Big Tech.
The joint complaint by Article 19 and Germany’s Society for Civil Rights to the European Commission could pose yet another headache for Apple, which was fined500 million euros ($583 million) in April for violating the Digital Markets Act.
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