British regulators: Apple torpedoes innovation in mobile browsers
The WebKit requirement prevents browser competition on iPhones, according to reports in the UK. Apple's search deal with Google is also being viewed critically.
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British competition authorities consider Apple to be the main brake on innovation in the browser market for mobile devices. The rules of iOS in particular restrict competition and thus prevent growth in mobile browsers at the expense of users and companies, is the preliminary conclusion of a large-scale market study. This was announced by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Friday.
Apple's WebKit constraint as the main problem
The study, which was carried out by a panel of experts, categorizes Apple's WebKit requirement as the main problem: All iOS browsers must rely on Apple's browser engine in their substructure. This limits the scope for competitors to set themselves apart from Apple's Safari browser. Other browsers are also at a functional disadvantage compared to Safari, the experts write. They also criticized Apple for artificially holding back the use of fully-fledged web apps (Progressive Web Apps – PWAs).
The report also considers the billion-euro search deal between Apple and Google to be problematic, as it removes the financial incentive for real competition. To appear as the standard search engine in Safari, Google apparently pays around 20 billion US dollars a year to Apple alone. These search engine deals were declared illegal by a US court in August.
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The investigation, which has been ongoing in the UK for several years, was directed against both Apple and Google, as the two companies "effectively have a duopoly" in smartphones, according to the regulators. Originally, the restrictions in the cloud gaming market were also to be investigated. As Apple had recently softened the corresponding bans, there is no longer any reason to intervene, the CMA notes.
New UK competition rules for digital companies
The authors of the market study recommend that the CMA examine the behavior of Apple and Google under the new rules of the "Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act" – similarly to what their EU colleagues are already doing with the Digital Markets Act. In the EU, Apple has now had to open up iOS to fully-fledged third-party browsers. However, nothing has happened yet; the iPhone company recently removed further hurdles for browser manufacturers – presumably under pressure from the EU.
(lbe)
