UK Competition Authority Designates Apple and Google as Digital Market Gatekeepers Under New Powers

Expanded Digital Market Oversight

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has expanded its digital market oversight by designating both Apple and Google as strategic market gatekeepers, according to reports. The designation specifically targets the companies’ control over mobile operating systems, app stores, and web browsers – areas that sources indicate have created what the CMA describes as a near-duopoly in key digital markets.

Expanded Digital Market Oversight
New Regulatory Framework
Economic Significance
Company Responses
Regulatory Powers and Market Assessment
Broader Regulatory Context

New Regulatory Framework

The decision comes under a new set of digital market competition rules that reportedly took effect earlier this year. These rules grant the regulator greater power to enforce compliance and impose fines to promote competition in critical digital sectors. According to reports, this marks the second set of designations issued under the new framework, following Google’s earlier designation in the online search and advertising sectors earlier this month.

Economic Significance

Will Hayter, the CMA’s executive director for digital markets, emphasized the importance of ensuring fair competition in these sectors, according to Bloomberg. He reportedly stated that the app economy contributes roughly 1.5% of the UK’s GDP and supports approximately 400,000 jobs, underscoring the need for markets that encourage investment, innovation, and growth.

Company Responses

Following the announcement, Oliver Bethell, Google’s senior competition director, described the CMA’s decision as “disappointing, disproportionate and unwarranted,” according to Bloomberg reports. Google had previously warned that such designations could “potentially slow product launches” in the UK when it received its first designation earlier this month.

Apple has voiced concerns that the UK’s move to adopt EU-like regulations could weaken user privacy and security. “We’ve seen the impact of regulation on Apple users in the EU, and we urge the UK not to follow the same path,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement. The company is reportedly already contesting the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, arguing in court that the bloc’s antitrust measures are “onerous and intrusive.”

Regulatory Powers and Market Assessment

The new rules reportedly allow the CMA to set conduct requirements for designated firms, which could include forcing Apple and Google to make it easier for users to download apps or make purchases outside of their proprietary systems. The CMA noted that despite advances in technology, including artificial intelligence, consumer habits and existing barriers make it unlikely that Apple or Google’s market power will diminish during the next five years of designation, according to the assessment.

Broader Regulatory Context

The CMA’s latest action signals the UK’s intent to more aggressively regulate Big Tech’s influence, mirroring similar moves in the European Union but adding its own enforcement framework to the global regulatory push against digital market dominance. Both companies are already dealing with regulatory challenges across Europe, with Apple’s recent challenge to the EU’s Digital Markets Act representing a landmark case in the evolving digital regulation landscape.

This coverage is based on reporting from PYMNTS.com and Bloomberg, with additional context from regulatory filings and company statements.