An investigation into the British competition authorities on Apple and Google mobile navigators concluded that mobile duopoly policies “retain innovation” and could also limit economic growth.
“Mobile browsers are applications that provide the main gateway to consumers to access the web on their mobile devices, and therefore companies to reach them with their content and their products. The problems that we have identified mean that consumers may lack new features when using mobile browsers; And companies are limited in their ability to achieve consumers via browser applications ”, exploits a summary of the 611 pages Final decision report Posted Wednesday.
Most of the concerns identified concern “Apple policies that determine how mobile browsers, how we access the web on mobiles, work on Apple’s devices”, according to a press release.
These include problems such as Apple imposing the use of its webkit browser engine for other iOS browsers, which limits their ability to differentiate themselves from the Apple Safari browser by offering improved features; Safari with more important or prior access to key platform features compared to rival browsers, which, according to survey groups, is a competition for display (including around confidentiality features) and to retain the development of PWA (progressive web applications) on iOS; Limits to the rupture which puts the limits to the capacity of rival browsers to serve users of applications which click on a link to the web; And some architecture problems of choice.
Regarding Google, the concerns of the investigation group investigating are focused on the provisions for sharing income between Mountain View and Apple, by which Google pays for Apple an important part of the research advertising revenues won by traffic on safari and chrome on iOS.
“We have found that Apple and Google get significant income when the mobile browser in their key rival is used on iOS for web research on Google, considerably reducing their financial incentives to compete,” they observe, continuing to note that the extent of income is “so important” that they considerably limit the financial incentive to competition.
But still no application in sight
Despite this series of negative results – and despite the competition problems in the United Kingdom concerning the grip of Apple and Google on the mobile which dates back many years at this stage – there is still no action to apply competition in sight; The report recommends waiting for special abuse control powers to arise.
These are powers that would be released if an active survey on the two technology giants (Open in January. A large British competition law targeting digital giants entered into force in January. Thus, the remedies for the anti -competitive problems identified remain in the air.
The report advises to try to remedy competition problems using survey powers on the standard market – because it says that there is “a number of significant risks to the effectiveness of these measures”.
The cloud game, which was also part of the market survey, was withdrawn from the survey last November after some Changes by Apple that the regulator has considered it likely to relieve competition problems.
The report of the independent investigation Group, which was set up by the AMC when it opened a survey on the market on Apple and the grip of Google on the mobile November 2022follows similar preliminary conclusions Last Fall. But the survey group now indicates that it is no longer concerned about certain specific choice screen problems that it had previously raised.
He indicated that an Apple update in December making changes to the way iOS users can change their default concerns have resolved the concerns he had on this platform. While Google has provided the group of the survey of “new evidence relating to its use of prompts to encourage users to define Chrome as default browser on Android” which has also resolved its concerns.
At the same time, the survey group has always challenged other choices of screen architecture design which, according to them, could make it more difficult for users to switch to alternative mobile browsers compared to Apple Safari and Google Chrome’s native browsers.
Future remedies?
The final report suggests a range of potential remedies (or “appropriate interventions” because it calls them) for the problems of competition from mobile browsers, which are set out in their entirety in Annex D.
The suggested remedies include obliging Apple to allow the use of alternative browser engines and an interoperability requirement which would require equivalent access to iOS features for rival browsers, as well as the ban on the share of chrome income, among others.
In addition, the way Google displays the browser choice screens could be regulated as part of this approach, including the frequency of the default browser contextual windows.
Although none of the proposed remedies is advanced within the framework of this survey on the CMA market, they could offer a puff in the way the regulator could ultimately apply on Apple and Google’s mobile duopoly.
This assumes that the survey of its digital market unit determines that they have a so -called strategic market status (SMS), which means that they would fall under the special abuse control regime and could be subject to such tailor -made interventions. SMS surveys on Apple and Google are expected to end later this year.
Commenting in a press release, Margot Daly, president of the CMA independent investigation group, wrote:
“The analysis stated in our report and the range of potential interventions considered to be addressed the market problems that we have identified on the merit of the CMA under its new powers, which have been specially designed for digital markets. So I am delighted with the rapid action of the CMA to open strategic market status surveys on Apple and Google mobile ecosystems. The in -depth analysis that we have established today will help this work as it progresses. »»
Apple and Google were contacted to comment on the final report of the survey group.
Here is Apple’s declaration:
“Apple believes in flourishing and dynamic markets where innovation can prosper. We are faced with competition in each segment and the jurisdiction in which we operate, and our goal is always the confidence of our users. We have concerns about this report and believe that the remedies she discusses would be able to confidentiality, security and global user experience. We will continue to commit us constructively with the CMA to best respond to their concerns. »»
