Tag: Apple

Fashionably late:  The UK digital markets legislation starts its passage through Parliament

More than four years after the Furman Report, the British Government has laid its Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill before Parliament.  However, what is perhaps more remarkable than the delays is how closely the Bill sticks to the CMA’s original recommendations. One can always quibble over some of the drafting, but overall this is … Continue reading Fashionably late:  The UK digital markets legislation starts its passage through Parliament →

Into Uncharted Waters – Making sense of the CAT’s Apple/CMA judgment

In November last year, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) started a market investigation into the supply of web browsers and browser engines on mobile devices, and the distribution of cloud gaming services through app stores on mobile devices. However, Apple appealed the CMA’s decision to make a market investigation reference (MIR) in the … Continue reading Into Uncharted Waters – Making sense of the CAT’s Apple/CMA judgment →

Interview with Tom Fish, Head of public policy and research at Gener8, and formerly Assistant Director at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority

Tom Smith, Geradin Partners: November 2022 was an important month for the UK’s efforts to curb the power of big tech. The Chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement that the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill will be introduced into parliament in the 3rd parliamentary session (it is currently rumoured to be scheduled for April … Continue reading Interview with Tom Fish, Head of public policy and research at Gener8, and formerly Assistant Director at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority →

The DMA is coming. Here’s what it will mean for mobile gaming

The App Store and Play Store are huge profit generators for Apple and Google. As explained by Judge Gonzalez Rogers in her Epic v Apple judgment of September 2021, gaming apps account for approximately 70% of all App Store revenues. According to some, this means that Apple makes more money from games than Microsoft, Sony, … Continue reading The DMA is coming. Here’s what it will mean for mobile gaming →

The CMA’s investigation of competition restrictions regarding browsers

On 22 November 2022, the CMA launched a market investigation into cloud gaming and mobile browsers. In this post, I focus on this investigation as it relates to mobile browsers. This blog has already discussed cloud gaming in an earlier post, and we will return to the topic in the future. CMA market investigations must … Continue reading The CMA’s investigation of competition restrictions regarding browsers →

Full steam ahead for the UK Digital Markets Unit

UK politics has been in a parlous state. Today the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer attempted to stabilize the country’s finances by announcing some eye-watering tax rises and spending cuts in the Autumn Statement. However, of more relevance to readers of this blog, he also made a significant announcement about the legislation required to implement … Continue reading Full steam ahead for the UK Digital Markets Unit →

Antitrust is turning its eye to gaming

Last week, I spoke at the Video Games Bar Association’s annual summit which took place at devcom in Cologne, Germany. The event confirmed to me that gaming is where the innovative technologies of the future are in many ways already a reality today. It was my contention at the conference that competition law is turning … Continue reading Antitrust is turning its eye to gaming →

The CMA Final Report on the Mobile Ecosystems market study: a repudiation of Apple’s narrative over privacy and safety as justifications for the status quo

On 10 June 2022, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its Final Report on its year-long market study into mobile ecosystems – namely mobile operating systems, app stores, and web browsers. The CMA found that Apple and Google have a tight grip over these increasingly crucial ecosystems, which in turn places them in … Continue reading The CMA Final Report on the Mobile Ecosystems market study: a repudiation of Apple’s narrative over privacy and safety as justifications for the status quo →

Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing: A preliminary assessment

Yesterday, Spotify announced on its corporate website a multiyear agreement with Google, which “represents a first-of-its-kind option in payment choice and offers opportunities for both consumers and developers.” A parallel announcement was made by Google on the same day. While the exact terms of the agreement are not known, the Spotify announcement says that: “Users … Continue reading Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing: A preliminary assessment →

Apple’s constructive refusal to comply with the law: A harbinger of things to come?

In August 2021, the Autoriteit Consument & Markt (“ACM”), the Dutch competition authority, adopted following a two-year investigation, a decision finding that Apple’s App Store payment policies as they applied to dating app providers amounted to an abuse of a dominant position in breach of Article 102 TFEU. As explained in an earlier blog post, … Continue reading Apple’s constructive refusal to comply with the law: A harbinger of things to come? →