Apple Wins Appeal Against UK’s Decision to Investigate Its Mobile Browser

Reuters:

Apple Inc won its appeal against the decision by Britain’s antitrust regulator to launch an investigation into its mobile browser and cloud gaming services, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled on Friday.

Regulator the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) opened a full investigation in November into the dominance of Apple and Alphabet Inc’s Google in mobile browsers, and the possibility of the iPhone maker restricting the cloud gaming market through its app store.

Apple argued that the CMA had “no power” to launch such a probe because it did so too late. Its lawyer Timothy Otty earlier this month said that the market investigation should have been opened last June at the same time the CMA published a report on mobile ecosystems, which found the two tech giants had an “effective duopoly.”

The CAT endorsed Apple’s argument, saying that in declining to take action at that time only in the expectation of receiving further powers it might well be said that the CMA “erred in law”.

Seems like a technicality, but still, in my opinion, the correct result.

★ Friday, 31 March 2023