- UK Competition Watchdog takes aim at Apple and Google’s competition practices across its app stores
- Apple and Google may be found to have “significant market status” through their “mobile ecosystems” and be forced to make changes to its operating systems in the territory
- The examinations have a deadline of 22 October 2025
The UK government has announced the launch of two antitrust investigations into the mobile ecosystems of both Apple and Google following the country’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
In the accompanying press release, the CMA defined a mobile ecosystem as including “operating systems, app stores and browsers that operate on mobile devices”.
Core elements of the investigation include the extent of competition between Apple and Google’s ecosystems, how each company can leverage its power to maintain a foothold “in other activities” and favor its own platforms, and whether both companies exploit app developers by strong-arming them into unfair terms and conditions to get their products accepted on their respective app stores.
CMA’s Apple and Google survey
The CMA cites such “potential behavioral requirements” as allowing users to download apps or in-app content from other sources “more easily” beyond its own app stores. Currently, while Google’s Android is a more open operating system that allows this, Apple’s iOS is much more of a ‘walled garden’.
Speaking to the CMA, its chief executive Sarah Cardell said “more competitive mobile ecosystems could foster new innovations and new opportunities across a range of services that millions of people use, be they app stores, browsers or operating systems.”
“Better competition,” she argued, “could also boost growth here in England, with businesses able to offer new and innovative types of products and services on Apple and Google’s platforms.”
Both studies have a statutory deadline of October 22, 2025, and follow the announcement of a similar Strategic Market Status (SMS) study into how Google’s search engine affects advertisers and publishers, as well as its own rivals.
The announcement by the CMA of its investigation into the Mobile App Store monopoly also follows its naming of Doug Gurr, former country head of Amazon UK and president of Amazon China, as interim chairman days earlier.
In this statement, the UK government said that Gurr, currently director of the Natural History Museum, will lead the CMA in “Support[ing] growth for [the country]”.
