The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) today published its final report on mobile browsers and cloud gaming investigations. According to Margot Dali, chairman of the CMA’s independent investigating group, “the competition between different mobile browsers is not working well, and is surpassing innovation in the UK”.
The next step is already going on – CMA has opened an inquiry into whether or not the CMA has appointed APPE Pal and Google as Strategic Market Status (SMS) under the UK’s new digital markets competition regime. The SMS investigation is expected to end “later this year”. Under the digital markets, competition and the Consumers Act which came into force in January this year, CMA – if guaranteed – will legally impose binding on companies as SMS.
If Apple Pal and/or Google have been designated with SMS, then the CMA should “consider imposing appropriate interventions”, today’s report states that “steps that can enable consumers to enable other browsers’ ability to compete by offering new, innovative features, as well as enable users to select their favorite mobile browser.”
Browser engines other than webcits used by iPhone and iPad maker Safari do not allow any competitive mobile browser to power, this is clearer about the Apple Pal than Google. The situation is completely different on Android. For that value, the CMA decided that no further action was required in terms of cloud gaming (which was another part of the investigation).
The CMA’s investigation, which ended with today’s report, was opened in 2021, and for some reason it took about four years to come to the clear findings.
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