British regulator: Apple torpedoes innovation in mobile browser

British competition watchdogs see Apple as the main brake on innovation in the mobile browser market. iOS rules in particular limit competition and thus stifle growth in mobile browsers at the expense of users and companies, a preliminary finding of a large-scale market study has found. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced this on Friday.

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Apple’s WebKit compulsion as the main problem

The study conducted by a panel of experts classifies 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 differentiate themselves from Apple’s Safari browser. Experts write that other browsers are also functionally disadvantaged compared to Safari. He also criticized Apple for artificially preventing the use of full-fledged web apps (Progressive Web Apps – PWAs).

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The report finds it problematic Also the multi-billion dollar search deal between Apple and Google – it removes the financial incentive for real competition. Google apparently pays Apple alone about $20 billion a year to appear as the default search engine in Safari. A US court declared these search engine deals illegal in August.

According to regulators, the investigation, which has been ongoing for several years in Great Britain, was directed against Apple as well as Google; The two companies “effectively have a monopoly” in smartphones. The original objective was also to shed light on the restrictions in the cloud gaming market. Since Apple recently weakened sanctions on this matter, there is no reason to intervene now, the CMA says.

UK’s new competition rules for digital companies

The authors of the market study suggest that the CMA investigate Apple and Google’s behavior under the new rules of the “Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act” – as their EU colleagues are already doing with the Digital Markets Act. In the EU, Apple has now had to open up iOS completely to third-party browsers. However, nothing has happened yet; The iPhone company recently removed further barriers for browser makers – possibly under pressure from the EU.

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