Google and Apple are the first companies investigated for their possible strategic market status by virtue of the new consumer, competition and digital markets of the United Kingdom. If Google or Apple receives the designation, personalized behavior requirements that the company must follow will be written, avoiding anti -competitive practices.
On January 23, the Market and Competition Authority announced that it would evaluate Google and Apple mobile ecosystems, including operating systems, application stores and default browsers of companies, to see if they have a disproportionate influence on the market.
See: United Kingdom Regulator investigates the mastery of Apple's mobile browser
“Given the importance of mobile ecosystems for people, companies and the economy, it is essential that the competition function well,” the CMA said in a press release. “Effective competence could ensure that Apple and Google treat consumers and companies fairly in relation to the terms and conditions imposed.
“Effective competition could also guarantee open opportunities for companies to innoce and offer a variety of content, services and technological developments to consumers in a mobile device.”
The announcement occurs less than two weeks after the first investigation into the state of the strategic market was announced. This also applies to Google, but within the scope of searches and advertising services in searches, where an advertiser pays for his announcement to appear next to the results of the search for a user.
What is the DMCCA?
The DMCCA, which entered into force on January 1, is designed to regulate the behavior of the main digital companies with important market power in the country. It gives the CMA new powers to impose requirements on technology companies with strategic market status, reminiscent of “guardians” organizations that must comply with the EU digital market law.
For the research of the mobile ecosystem, the CMA will examine factors such as the extent to which Apple and Google competitors are able to offer rival products and services, if Apple and Google are favoring their own applications and services within the iOS and Android ecosystems, and if developers are subject to unfair terms and conditions if they want to distribute applications in their respective application stores.
For the research on Google's influence on searches and searches advertising services, the CMA will analyze whether using its position to prevent the innovation of others, such as retaining resources or designing artificial intelligence services to limit how search engines how Competitors could create equivalent characteristics. The CMA will also evaluate whether the technological giant is using its dominant position to prioritize its search services, such as purchases or trips, collecting and using consumers data without informed consent and using editor content without fair terms and conditions.
See: Google abuses its dominant position in the advertising technology sector, says the United Kingdom government
The DMCCA grants new application powers to a group established within the CMA called Digital Markets Unit. It will write a unique set of behavior requirements for each company designated as a strategic market state, which must be met even before exhibiting anti -competitive practices to prevent them from occurring. In addition, the DMU can carry out “interventions in favor of competition” that will actively address the adverse effects of a company on competition that derive from its disproportionate market power.
The behavior requirements for Google and Apple in the field of mobile ecosystems could include demanding companies to provide third -party applications with the necessary functionality to operate on iPhone or Android devices, or facilitate users to download applications and payment for them. Content outside the Apple and Google application stores. The CMA can continue modifying them even after completing the SMS investigation.
The requirements for Google in the field of searches and advertising in searches could include forcing the company to put the user data that collects available to competitors or giving the editors more control over how their data is used, even in Google artificial intelligence services.
The companies designated for SMS must have a substantial market power in digital activity, strategic importance and a global turnover of more than 25 billion or a turnover in the United Kingdom of more than 1 billion. The CMA will carry out research on each company before requesting the status SMS, which usually takes about nine months.
Mobile ecosystems and search and advertising services represent the first two areas of digital activity in which the CMA has initiated research on SMS. Decisions will be made at the end of October.
See: The CMA regulator will examine Microsoft and other cloud service providers in the United Kingdom
The EU and USA
In March 2024, Google temporarily eliminated some search widgets, such as Google Flights, to allow greater access to individual companies in response to the entry into force of the EU digital market law.
However, just a few weeks later, the EU opened an ongoing non -compliance investigation, since regulators claim that it is promoting their own services above those of third parties in the search results. In December, Google announced several more changes in its search functions to meet the DMA.
In September 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed a fine of 2,420 million euros against Google for violating EU's antitrust standards by favoring its own price comparison service, Google Shopping, in search results.
In addition, in August 2024, a federal judge ruled that the technology company monopolizes general search services and text advertisements, violating the US antimonopoolio law.
However, Google will not sink without fighting. The technology company successfully annulled an antimonopoly fine of 1.5 billion euros that it received from the European Commission in 2019 for preventing third parties that used its Adsense platform showing competition ads along with Google's search results.
Google also received a fine of 4,340 million euros from the European Commission in 2018 for abusing its domain by pre -installing Google search on Android devices, but since then it has raised an appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
