UK CMA opens investigations into Apple and Google mobile ecosystems

• UK competition watchdog is taking aim at Apple and Google’s competition practices across its app stores
• Apple and Google may be found as having “significant market status” through their “mobile ecosystems”, and be forced to make changes to its operating systems in the territory
• The investigations 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 by the country’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

In the accompanying press release, the CMA defined a mobile ecosystem as including “the 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 may be leveraging its power to maintain footholds “into other activities” and favour their own platforms, and whether either company is exploiting app developers by strong-arming them into unfair terms and conditions in order to have their products accepted onto their respective app stores.

CMA’s Apple and Google investigation

The CMA cites such “potential conduct requirements” as allowing users to download apps or in-app content from other sources “more easily” beyond its own app stores. Presently, while Google’s Android is a more open operating system that does permit this, Apple’s iOS is much more of a ‘walled garden’.

Speaking for the CMA, its chief executive Sarah Cardell said that “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 claimed, “could also boost growth here in the UK, with businesses able to offer new and innovative types of products and services on Apple’s and Google’s platforms.”

Both investigations have a statutory deadline of October 22, 2025, and follow the announcement of a similar strategic market status (SMS) investigation into how Google’s search engine impacts advertisers and publishers, as well as its own rivals.

The announcement by the CMA of its investigation into mobile app store monopolies also follows its naming of Doug Gurr, former Country Manager for Amazon UK and President of Amazon China, as interim chair days earlier.

In that statement, the UK Government said that Gurr, currently the director of Natural History Museum, will lead the CMA in “support[ing] growth for [the country]”.

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