Following consultation, the CMA has confirmed that legal tests have been met to
designate Apple and Google with strategic market status (SMS) under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 in each of their mobile platforms. These platforms encompass operating systems, app distribution, browsers and browser engines on smartphones and tablets.
The UK’s new digital markets competition regime under the Act has given the CMA powers to take
targeted and proportionate action to improve competition in digital markets, with the aim of helping support
innovation, investment and growth across the UK economy.
The CMA launched investigations into Apple and Google’s mobile platforms in
January 2025 and published proposed decisions in July that they should be designated with SMS.
The CMA received feedback from more than 150 stakeholders and engaged with Apple and
Google. Following analysis of the feedback, the CMA has confirmed that Apple and Google
have substantial and entrenched market power and a position of strategic significance in
their respective mobile platforms and therefore have been designated with SMS.
The CMA’s decision sets out other findings. These include that UK mobile device
holders use either Apple or Google’s mobile platform and are unlikely to switch between
them, remaining either an ‘Apple’ or ‘Android’ user. In addition, the CMA found that to reach
both Apple and Android users, businesses must develop and distribute their content through
both platforms and that ongoing technological developments, particularly involving AI, are
unlikely to eliminate Apple or Google’s market power in the five-year designation period.
The designation is not a finding of wrongdoing and does not introduce immediate
requirements. However, it enables the CMA to consider proportionate, targeted interventions
to make sure that mobile platforms are open to effective competition, and that consumers
and businesses reliant on Google and Apple have confidence they are treated fairly.
