Google LLC and Apple Inc. today said they’re committed to making changes to their app stores following an intervention from the U.K.’s antitrust watchdog.
Last year, the Competition and Markets Authority, or CMA, said the companies had an “effective duopoly” in the U.K., giving them an unfair advantage. Their “vice-like grip” on the mobile market was said to keep U.K. consumers within the companies’ ecosystems, while the companies “set all the rules” in their respective app stores.
They have now both agreed not to give their own apps preferential treatment and will be more transparent about how they treat other apps in their app stores, among other agreements to ameliorate the concerns of the regulators.
The companies have agreed not to discriminate against other developers’ apps and will rank all apps in a “fair, objective, and transparent way.” They will collect data in a transparent way and will not use that data unfairly. Developers will now also have access to more of Apple’s features in iOS to create competing products.
“The ability to secure immediate commitments from Apple and Google reflects the unique flexibility of the U.K. digital markets competition regime and offers a practical route to swiftly address the concerns we’ve identified,” said the CMA’s head, Sarah Cardell, adding that the commitments will “boost the U.K.’s app economy.”
The app economy is estimated to currently generate about 1.5% of the U.K.’s GDP and supports in the region of 400,000 jobs.
Both companies said they welcomed the changes.
“Apple faces fierce competition in every market where we operate, and we work tirelessly to create the best products, services and user experience,” an Apple spokesperson said. Google said while it would gladly work through the CMA’s concerns, it believed the existing rules were already fair, objective and transparent.
The changes are more like suggestions than enforcement, although failure to comply could result in tougher measures. This is in contrast to the EU, whose enforcement of the Digital Markets Act has been far more uncompromising.
U.S. tech giants and the Trump administration are presently locked in what could be an escalating battle with Europe and its regulatory fervor. The U.K. may be playing it safe.
Photo: Unsplash
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