Report from Reuters
In Brief – Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced its proposed new regulations to require Apple’s and Google’s app stores to allow app developers to direct users to third-party payment options to increase competition and reduce costs for developers and consumers. The consultation on the proposed rules follows the CMA’s designation of Apple and Google as firms with strategic market status under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer’s Act, which gives the regulator greater authority to impose competition remedies. Under the new proposal, any fees Apple or Google charge developers for enabling off-platform payments would have to be fair, reasonable, and lower than existing commissions, with resulting savings passed on to consumers or invested in innovation. Google said recent Play Store policy changes already permit greater payment steering and will be evaluated by the CMA, while Apple argued the proposal would harm consumers by weakening security, fraud protections, and parental controls.
Context – Epic Games’ 2020 antitrust lawsuits against Apple and Google in US federal court opened a global lobbying and litigation campaign to force the two giants to change their business models and cut their fees. Although the results of those initial cases appeared quite different, Apple and Google were both ordered to revamp their US app stores by federal district court judges. Apple’s appeal has been accepted by the US Supreme Court while Google is trying to implement a global settlement. They both face similar demands in a growing number of markets, with the UK joining the EU, Japan, South Korea, India and others. Each new result appears to feed more. For example, when the Director of Japan’s Fair Trade Commission was asked about the prospect that Japan regulating the Apple and Google’s app stores would lead to trade retaliation from the Unites States, he said, “We don’t think this will be a big problem. It’s not like Japan is the only country that’s targeted certain US companies.”