Guillermo Escofet, MEF Programme Director DCB, discusses evolving regulatory scrutiny shaping the mobile app ecosystem and what it could mean for platforms, developers and market competition. Recent developments suggest shifting expectations around fairness, transparency and platform access, raising broader questions about how digital marketplaces operate and how industry stakeholders may need to adapt in the months ahead going forward globally.
Mobile apps duopoly Apple and Google are making changes to their UK app store operations after the UK’s antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), classed them as having too much market power.
And to ensure that core iOS capabilities are not exclusively reserved for Apple’s own apps, the device maker has agreed to allow developers to request interoperable access to certain iOS features, such as digital wallet APIs, live translation tools, and other system-level features.”
In October, the CMA concluded that both Apple and Google hold “substantial and entrenched market power” in the UK mobile ecosystem — across smartphone operating systems, browsers and app distribution. This triggered their designation as companies with “strategic market status” under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, the UK’s equivalent of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
But, unlike the EU, UK antitrust authorities haven’t gone as far as forcing Apple and Google to open their app ecosystems to third-party and off-store billing, or to alternative app distribution channels. Nor are they imposing formal legal restrictions, with penalties in the case of non-compliance. This might happen further down the line if Apple and Google don’t play ball.
Antitrust efforts so far in the UK have been focused on ensuring the two companies don’t favour their own apps unfairly against competing apps in the wider iOS and Android ecosystems – for example, Apple Music versus Spotify.
To tackle long-standing criticism that their app approval systems and ranking practices favour their own services, Apple and Google have committed to the following:
To address concerns about misuse of developer insights to tweak or pre-empt third-party innovations, the tech giants have pledged to safeguard sensitive data submitted by developers during the app approval process.
And to ensure that core iOS capabilities are not exclusively reserved for Apple’s own apps, the device maker has agreed to allow developers to request interoperable access to certain iOS features, such as digital wallet APIs, live translation tools, and other system-level features.
A consultation into Apple’s and Google’s proposed changes has been opened by the CMA. Market stakeholders have until 3 March to give their feedback. And, assuming there is no significant pushback, the changes are scheduled to start being implemented on 1 April.
