The U.K.’s antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, has closed two parallel probes into Google LLC and Apple Inc. that focused on their business practices in the mobile market.
Officials announced the decision today. The development relates to a new piece of legislation, the DMCC Act, that became law in the U.K. this past May. The CMA signaled that it could resume its scrutiny of Apple and Google in a new form to make use of the additional regulatory tools that the DMCC Act puts at its disposal.
The watchdog opened its probe into Apple in 2021 and the Google investigation the following year. The inquiries focused on the payment processing services that the companies ship with their respective app stores. Both Apple and Google require developers to use those services to process users’ in-app purchases.
In the case of the Alphabet Inc. unit, the CMA was concerned that the company’s in-app transaction rules may be harming rival payment platforms. Antitrust officials also believe that Google’s restrictions could negatively impact Android developers’ relationship with their customers. The CMA flagged similar concerns in connection with its review of Apple’s in-app purchase rules, which are similar to those adopted by Google.
The search giant proposed changing some of its business practices to address the regulator’s concerns. In conjunction with the closure of its antitrust probes today, the CMA disclosed that it had opted to reject Google’s offer.
In a memo announcing the end of its investigation into the search giant, the CMA stressed that the move does not suggest the antitrust concerns it had flagged are “unfounded or have ceased to exist.” Rather, the regulator is ending the probes to explore a different way of tackling the potential antitrust violations. At the center of the decision is the UK’s recently passed DMCC Act.
The CMA launched its newly closed antitrust probes under a different piece of legislation known as the Competition Act. According to the regulator, restarting the antitrust initiatives under the new DMCC Act would enable officials to address the potential competition issues at hand faster. It’s believed that the change in course may also make it possible to take regulatory action in a more “holistic and flexible manner.”
Under the DMCC Act, the CMA can assign so-called Strategic Market Status to the key players in a given market. After companies receive this designation, the regulator may “set requirements for how these firms should conduct themselves.” When necessary, the regulator can also take antitrust enforcement actions to ensure the market players in question comply with competition rules.