UK Competition Watchdog Investigates Apple, Google’s Mobile Ecosystems | Global News Avenue

Britain’s competition watchdog launched an investigation into the mobile ecosystem of two Alphabet companies on Thursday (Google) Google and Apple (AAPL) to measure whether tech companies’ ownership of their apps and services leads their users to choose the tech giant’s products over those of competitors.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority said it was investigating the companies to “determine whether Apple and Google have a strategic market position in their mobile ecosystems”, which includes the app stores, operating systems and operating systems on the technology companies’ mobile devices. browser.

The regulator is launching an investigation as part of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act, which comes into force in early 2025 and aims to prevent platforms from abusing their market position to restrict online competition.

Regulators have said Apple and Google could open up access to their apps to developers or make it easier for users to download or pay for rival in-app content if investigations find tech companies favor their own products.

The regulator said it expects to make a decision by October 2025 and that the investigation is separate from its ongoing investigation into technology companies’ mobile browsers and cloud gaming.

Shares of Apple and Alphabet were little changed in premarket trading Thursday.