The UK’s CMA is Investigating Apple and Google’s Mobile Platforms

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced today that it’s launching a new investigation into Apple and Google’s mobile ecosystems to determine if the two companies achieved a “strategic market status” (SMS) that’s negatively impacting UK consumers and businesses. This is the CMA’s second investigation under the country’s new digital markets competition regime after a first probe into Google’s search services was announced last week.

As part of this new investigation, the UK antitrust regulator will be looking at Apple and Google’s mobile operating systems, app stores, and browsers. The CMA plans to share its conclusions in October 2025, but in the meantime, it’s inviting device manufacturers, software developers, and other stakeholders to share their comments on the state of the competition until February 12.

“Given the importance of mobile ecosystems to people, businesses and the economy, it is critical that competition works well,” the UK CMA explained today. “Effective competition could ensure consumers and businesses are treated fairly by Apple and Google in relation to the terms and conditions they impose. Effective competition could also ensure open opportunities for businesses to innovate and deliver a range of content, services and technological developments to consumers on a mobile device.”

At the end of its investigations, the CMA will determine if it needs to impose conduct requirements on Apple and Google to improve competition in the country. That may include forcing the two companies to provide access to key system-level features to third-party apps, and making it possible for consumers to install apps and pay for in-app content without going through Apple’s and Google’s app stores. This is pretty much what the EU Commission managed to impose on iOS in the EU with the Digital Markets Act.

In reaction to the new probe, Apple said that it believed in “thriving and dynamic markets where innovation can flourish” in a statement shared with Reuters. “We face competition in every segment and jurisdiction where we operate, and our focus is always the trust of our users,” the company added.

Oliver Bethell, Google’s senior director for competition also argued in a statement shared with Reuters that the openness of Android brought more choice and democratized access to mobile technology in the country. “It’s the only example of a successful and viable open source mobile operating system,” the exec said.