UK antitrust regulator wins appeal to launch Apple probe

In a reversal of a lower court ruling, Britain’s antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has been granted authority by the Court of Appeal to launch a probe of Apple’s Safari mobile browser and Apple Arcade cloud gaming services. The CMA had previously launched an investigation into the dominance of Apple and Alphabet’s Google in mobile browsers last year.

Reuters:
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Apple argued that the CMA had “no power” to launch such an inquiry because it did so too late and that the probe should have been opened last June at the same time the CMA published a report on mobile ecosystems, which found Apple and Google had an “effective duopoly.”

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled in Apple’s favour in March, but the Court of Appeal upheld the CMA’s appeal on Thursday.

Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, welcomed the decision which she said “gives the CMA the backing it needs to protect consumers and promote competition in UK”.

She said the CMA is ready to reopen the investigation “when the legal process is complete”.

Apple has the right to seek permission to appeal the decision.

The CMA said its investigation is on hold pending any application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

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MacDailyNews Take: As of October 2023, in the UK, Apple’s Safari has 48.62% share of mobile browsers. Google’s Chrome has 42.44%. Worldwide, Safari has just 25.76% share of mobile browsers. Chrome has 64.08%.

Side note: In the U.S., Safari has 51.4% share of mobile browsers. Chrome has 42.34%.

In general, the richer the country, the more iPhones are in use. The poorer the country, the more pretend, wannabe, knockoff iPhones are in use.
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