Why UK watchdog abandoned its Apple monopoly probe

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was forced to abandon its inquiry into Apple's role in the mobile browsing and cloud gaming markets because the agency missed its filing deadlines. Apple requires all browsers that run on its iOS platform to use its WebKit rendering engine. Doing so prevents significant browser …

[Anonymous Coward]

So now the UK is out of the EU...

So now the UK is out of the EU...

The cash strapped UK based CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) now relies on using the cheapskate's approach, to copy judgements from the EU, even though the UK is unwilling to fund these investigations to hold Apple to account.

It's time the EU put a copyright sticker on their judgements, and forced the UK to part fund those investigations, if the UK wants to rely on these judgements.

i.e. No free lunch, even for regulation, and I'm all for holding Apple, Microsoft and Google, to account.

[ICL1900-G3]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

I see you have already been downvoted, presumably by a blissfully happy dweller in those sunlit Brexit uplands - remember them?

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

I think your & the OP's downvotes were a reaction tone of the posts being found offensive by those who voted remain* but are now stuck with the result, those too young to vote but who are now stuck with the result, those who voted leave but now realise they were victims of a con, those who thought it wouldn't have any consequences & wanted to make a protest vote and, with less justification, those who didn't vote because they thought they didn't need to bother voting against something so self-evidently stupid would never get anywhere near a majority.

I'd guess that now amount to more than half of the UK's population.

* In case you've forgotten, that was a whisker under half the votes cast.

[Furious Reg reader John]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

Or maybe the downvotes were because the posts are idiotic? Reminiscing about the "good old days" won't change reality.

[anonymous boring coward]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

Sure, let's forget about the "good old days" so we don't accidentally try to get back to those days. Let's just sink deeper instead.

[Furious Reg reader John]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

The inability to follow UK rules here is due to UK civil service incompetence.

When Apple are forced to change their operating procedures by the EU, which will have effects worldwide, are you suggesting that the EU should be billing every other country outside the EU, or is it only the UK who should be paying for EU legislation?

[DS999]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

When Apple are forced to change their operating procedures by the EU, which will have effects worldwide

You sure about that? Nothing would stop them from making those changes in the EU, and leaving everything as is elsewhere including the UK. I think it is more likely than not they will make those changes in the app stores of France, Germany, etc. but not in the app store for the US, UK, etc. Likewise for phones set to the region of an EU country but not those set to US etc.

[Strahd Ivarius]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

so the EU will get a massive influx of new citizens when they update their phone location to be inside EU to get better prices and more functionalities?

[DS999]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

Don't forget big companies like Facebook being able to set up their own app stores to force EU citizens to download from there, so they don't have to obey Apple's or anyone else's rules about tracking etc. inevitably leading to one of those app stores getting hacked and people getting malware on their phones.

This would not be an all good zero bad situation, there will be some negative tradeoffs along for the ride that will rear their ugly head eventually.

[toomanylogins]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

Its not about funding. Th Uk Gov finds plenty of money to knock up the next set of woke rules, penalise landlords, create daft energy efficiency schemes and raise IR35 cases. What they are unable to do is understand anything relating to British business.

[anonymous boring coward]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

Woke rules? Like what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

paying taxes...

[Dr Fidget]

Re: So now the UK is out of the EU...

More likely Rishi or one of his mates has shares in Apple

[Howard Sway]

time limits stipulated in the UK's 2002 Enterprise Act

Looks like a 20 year old law that needs updating to reflect the complexity of the practices of the tech giants that have emerged and grown hugely since then. A 6 month limit for investigation is self-defeating and pointless when dealing with the likes of Amazon, Google, Apple, etc.

Some may also suspect a reluctance to investigate that has emerged more recently, as the UK is now a relatively small market standing alone, and a "we mustn't risk the embarrassment of one of these companies leaving" attitude prevails.

Others may just picture an image of an angry Sunak shouting "I'm not using a fucking Android! My wife's iPhone cost £25000! Stop this immediately!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: time limits stipulated in the UK's 2002 Enterprise Act

Also remember to Apple the EU is a relatively small market compared to China and the 'win' over USB-C wasn't the win most eurp-lovers think it was as apple was already starting to kill off lightning.

As always with government interference the good old monkey claw backfire happens as there are rumours about apple planning to require 'made for iphone' USB-C cables or you won't get full performance.

[F. Frederick Skitty]

Re: time limits stipulated in the UK's 2002 Enterprise Act

The EU and UK are a far bigger market for Apple than China. In terms of affluent buyers likely to buy Apple's products it dwarfs the Chinese market. China also has a lot of homegrown competition for the iPhone with much better localised support - and the Chinese Communist Party likes it that way.

[doublelayer]

Re: time limits stipulated in the UK's 2002 Enterprise Act

"Also remember to Apple the EU is a relatively small market compared to China"

China's population is over twice the size of the EU's. That makes it a larger market if you could have all of it, but it doesn't make the EU market inconsequential. Also, Apple doesn't have and will never have the entire Chinese market, so the EU is a bigger one. Let's look at numbers:

Apple shipped about 17 million iPhones in China for the fourth quarter of 2021. That was the highest quarter of that year. They had 22% of the shipments that quarter, but in other quarters, that fell to 12%. In the same quarter, Apple had 31% of the EU shipments. The larger EU markets also have significantly higher market share for Apple. 40% of Germany's market, 35% of France's, 30% of Italy's, and similar levels in most smaller EU members mean that Apple sells a lot of phones there. They would like to increase their popularity in large countries and have been doing a lot with India to be able to do so, but they would be very unhappy to lose the EU market.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: time limits stipulated in the UK's 2002 Enterprise Act

"the 'win' over USB-C wasn't the win most eurp-lovers think it was as apple was already starting to kill off lightning."

It was a long slow road to that ruling. It was clear it was going to happen. Apple knew it was going to happen. Ergo Apple started to kill off Lightning in favour of USB. Simple cause and effect and not even close to what you are implying.

[Gene Cash]

Re: time limits stipulated in the UK's 2002 Enterprise Act

No, they just need to get off their ass and do the investigation in a useful timescale. 6 months is plenty.

There's no reason under the sun such an investigation should take that long, other than pure bureaucracy.

I'm no fan of Apple, but no one should have to wait forever for such things to take place.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: time limits stipulated in the UK's 2002 Enterprise Act

Investigations can take years when the issue is complicated and the company involved is global. The 6 month time limit relates to the time from the end of the market study to the issue of the notice of the beginning of the formal investigation.

From the article "The law, under the scenario advanced by Apple, requires that the CMA's June 15, 2021 market study notice be followed by a proposed investigation notice within six months – not a year later, on June 10, 2022, when the notice was actually published. Similarly, the law also requires the CMA to begin its consultation within six months rather than a year."

That implies there are no time limits on the market study or the later formal investigation, but only on the time between the end of the former and the notice announcement of the latter.

[jollyboyspecial]

So what we're saying is that Apple can continue to impose anticompetitive practices on UK customers but not on EU customers. Welcome to the sunlit uplands.

Oh wait. I understand. The sunlit uplands are for big business. Us plebs can remain in the deep dark valleys.

[DS999]

That's what 52% of the UK voted for whether they knew it or not.

[Anonymous Coward]

They all knew what they were voting for as they keep telling everybody ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there anything stopping the CMA from...

starting a new investigation of the same things? Seems like if they run a new study (but quicker this time) and then launch the new investigation based on the new study, they'd essentially have a do-over.

[anonymous boring coward]

"The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was forced to abandon its inquiry into Apple's role in the mobile browsing and cloud gaming markets because the agency missed its filing deadlines."

At least no unelected EU official filed it for us in time... Oh, sweet, sweet freedom.

[Anonymous Coward]

And in many cases that unelected EU official (as civil servants are not elected) would have been a UK citizen ...

[TimMaher]

Re: “Check and mate, Tim.”

Don’t drag me into this!

[Anonymous Coward]

A Tale of Fortnum's shopping bags and SWIFT......

Quote: "....because the agency missed its filing deadlines...."

Oh dear, we missed our deadlines!.......it really is far too hard and too time consuming these days:

(1) To find an actual bank open on the High Street.......

(2) ....where they have actual staff to count the folding money stuffed into a large Fortnum's shopping bag.....

Oh dear! Perhaps a SWIFT transfer to our anonymous account in Lichtenstein would have been quicker.........

.......but then again.......SWIFT (or swift) was probably not the goal.........................

Another quote (William Burroughs): "The paranoid is a person who knows a little of what is going on."

[xyz123]

The CMA missed the filing deadline. Too distracted with the piles of cold hard cash Apple was shoving in their pockets.

[Tron]

Missing the deadline.

Classic dodge. Probably featured in 'Yes Minister'.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that anyone in charge of anything in Brexit Britain is bent, crap at their job, or both.

Don't believe me? Buy yourself a copy of 'Private Eye' next time you are in a newsagent.

[anonymous boring coward]

"Doing so prevents significant browser differentiation on iOS devices and restricts web developers to the capabilities Apple makes available."

Thank god for that.