News — 17/12/2021

The Interim Report of the CMA’s Market Study on Mobile Ecosystems : A Great Piece of Work

On 14 December 2021, the CMA published the Interim Report of its Market Study on Mobile Ecosystems. This is a massive (445 pages + annexes) piece of work, which is – as always with the CMA – extremely well done. The purpose of this Interim Report is for the CMA to share the content of its preliminary analysis with stakeholders and open a consultation process. All those interested in making observations can do so by 7 February 2021.

At a time where competition cases become increasingly narrow, one of the great aspects of the Interim Report is that it takes a holistic view of mobile ecosystems and the competition problems associated with these ecosystems, where Apple and Google are in an “effective duopoly”.  The Interim Report also comes at a time where Apple’s App Store practices are subject to antitrust investigation or litigation in several countries (including the UK (by the CMA itself), the Netherlands and the U.S.), and are the object of a range of regulatory initiatives (including the EU Digital Markets Act, the U.S. Open App Markets Act and the Korean app store bill).

Read the full paper here.