UK antitrust body raises concerns about Apple and Google's mobile browers

Reuters

Wed, Mar 12, 2025, 7:06 AM 1 min read

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's antitrust regulator said its enquiry radical had recovered the mobile browser market, dominated by Apple and Google, was not moving good for consumers and businesses, supporting its determination to motorboat an probe into the assemblage successful January.

A last study by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) autarkic enquiry radical said astir of its concerns related to Apple's policies astir accessing the net connected its devices utilizing its Safari browser.

Following provisional findings published successful November, the CMA opened an probe nether its caller powers successful January.

It volition determine if either oregon some companies person "strategic marketplace status" successful mobile ecosystems, a wider remit than the browser marketplace looked astatine by the enquiry group.

The radical said if the companies were designated with SMS status, the CMA should see interventions specified arsenic enhancing the quality of rivals to vie by offering caller features.

Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome browsers predominate the market, it said, with Safari accounting for 88% of browsers connected Apple devices and Chrome accounting for 77% connected devices moving Google's Android operating strategy successful 2024.

Margot Daly, seat of the autarkic enquiry group, said contention betwixt antithetic mobile browsers was not moving good and it was holding backmost innovation.

"I invited the CMA's punctual enactment to unfastened strategical marketplace presumption investigations into some Apple and Google's mobile ecosystems," she said.

"The extended investigation we've acceptable retired contiguous volition assistance that enactment arsenic it progresses."

The SMS investigations were expected to reason aboriginal this year, the CMA said.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle and Muvija M. Editing by Catarina Demony and Mark Potter)