The United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided on Wednesday to close its antitrust investigations into Google and Apple's app stores ahead of the establishment of the UK's new digital markets competition regime under the recently passed Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. The CMA started the Apple and Google probe in 2021 and 2022 respectively out of concern that their app stores restrict competition and consumer choice and "set terms which may be unfair to UK app developers."
The CMA said it has not reached any conclusions regarding the investigations, adding that Google's proposed remedies do not satisfy its concerns. The CMA added that, if the companies are designated as having "strategic market status" in the mobile sector, it will consider interventions. "Once the new pro-competition digital markets regime comes into force, we’ll be able to consider applying those new powers to concerns we have already identified through our existing work," CMA Executive Director for Digital Markets Will Hayter said.
