iPhone browser selection: "Deceptive design" accusations against Apple
In the UK, too, users should be able to choose which browser they use on iPhones more easily in future. A lobby organization is massively criticizing Apple.
Icons of different browsers on the iPhone: Does Apple offer enough choice?
(Image: Primakov/Shutterstock.com)
The lobby organization Open Web Advocacy (OWA), which campaigns for the opening of the App Store and the use of alternative browser engines in iOS, accuses Apple of a "misleading browser selection scheme" on the UK market. As in the EU, the iPhone manufacturer had allowed users to select a new default browser in iOS for the first time. The OWA sees this as a "deceptive pattern" if Safari is already the default setting. Accordingly, it was then more difficult to switch to another browser. Conversely, Safari was prominently displayed when Firefox or Chrome were the default browsers.
Apple does not see the problem
The OWA then sent a complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which wanted to investigate the case. The market watchdog then asked Apple. The answer has now come officially. Apple stated that the problem of hiding the settings did not exist. "This is not correct. The default browser app setting on the Safari tab is clearly visible when the user has set Safari as the default," the company said.
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The OWA activists do not want to let this stand and responded with several screenshots. "Apple wants us to believe that this never happened and that we collectively imagined the design!" They called on the CMA to check whether the behavior really did not take place in the past – and to request internal information that proves this or not. The same applies to the necessary code in the Safari settings.
A software update is said to have helped
Apple has now respondedto US media. According to them, the OWA's accusation that Apple deceived the CMA is untrue. The CMA was informed that the design in the settings dialog in question had been changed with a recent software update. According to Macrumors, the design was apparently never intended to prevent users from setting a new default browser.
It remains to be seen how the CMA will react. At worst, it could levy a fine. The antitrust watchdog recently terminated another review of the App Store on formal grounds, but the CMA now has more powers to intervene and could reopen the case.
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