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Britain’s competition watchdog launched an investigation into Apple and Google’s vast mobile ecosystem on Thursday to determine whether the two tech giants breached Britain’s tough new digital competition rules.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority said it was launching a dual investigation into the two US technology giants, seeking to assess their positions in their respective mobile ecosystems, including operating systems, app stores and smartphone-based browsers.
The investigation will “explore the impact on people who use mobile devices and the thousands of businesses that develop innovative services or content such as apps for these devices.” CMA said.
The CMA now has enhanced regulatory powers following new UK law, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act (DMCC), which came into force earlier this year.
The DMCC aims to prevent anti-competitive behavior in digital markets. It can designate large companies with significant market power in certain digital activities as having a “strategic market position.”
The CMA now has the power to implement changes to prevent potentially anti-competitive behavior by any company that acquires a strategic market position.
