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The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) closed its investigations into Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store on 21 August 2024, but it did not clear either company. The cases ended on administrative-priority grounds as the UK prepared to use a new digital-markets regime. No infringement finding or fine was issued.
Since then, the CMA has designated both companies as having strategic market status (SMS) in their respective mobile platforms and has begun using the new framework to address app-review, ranking, data-use, interoperability and payment-related concerns. As of 18 August 2026, the most important unresolved issue is whether developers will be allowed to steer users to external payment options on workable terms.
What the CMA closed on 21 August 2024
The CMA ended two Competition Act 1998 investigations:
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- an investigation into Apple’s terms for distributing apps on iOS and iPadOS; and
- a parallel investigation into Google’s Play Store.
Apple’s investigation had opened on 4 March 2021. The CMA recorded both closures as administrative-priority decisions. In practical terms, the regulator decided that continuing the older cases alongside the incoming Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) regime was not the best use of its resources.
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That is materially different from saying Apple and Google complied with competition law. The CMA made no finding that either company had infringed the law, but it also made no finding that the conduct was lawful. Its stated intention was to carry the underlying concerns into the new regime, where it could examine the companies’ wider mobile ecosystems rather than pursue narrower cases in parallel. The CMA’s closure announcement explains the distinction.
What concerns were under examination?
The investigations followed complaints from developers and digital businesses about the terms on which they reached customers through Apple’s and Google’s mobile platforms. The concerns were allegations and regulatory questions, not established violations in the closed cases.
Payments and commissions
The CMA examined whether developers were effectively required to use Apple’s or Google’s payment systems for digital purchases, how much those systems cost, and whether alternative payment methods were genuinely viable.
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Google had proposed alternative-payment arrangements, but feedback cited by the CMA suggested that developers might remain tied to Google’s system in practice because of commissions and user-facing warning screens. The issue is not simply whether an alternative button technically exists: it is whether customers can use it without being discouraged and whether the economics make it a meaningful alternative.
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App review and ranking
Developers also raised questions about whether app-review processes were predictable, transparent and consistently applied. Ranking systems were another concern, including whether platform-owned apps might receive preferential treatment compared with competing third-party services.
Use of business data
A further issue was whether Apple or Google could use data gathered from third-party apps to compete against those businesses. For a developer, access to platform data can affect product decisions, marketing and the ability to compete with the platform’s own services.
Why the CMA changed legal routes
The DMCCA, passed in May 2024, created a framework aimed specifically at powerful digital businesses. It came into force on 1 January 2025.
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The regime can also support wider pro-competition interventions, and breaches of applicable requirements can lead to significant fines. It is not, however, a blanket ban on large technology companies and it does not automatically require alternative app stores or payment systems. Each intervention involves its own evidence, process and consultation.
This firm-specific and activity-specific approach is not simply the EU Digital Markets Act copied into UK law. The UK system allows the CMA to investigate and tailor requirements for designated firms and activities.
Timeline: from closed cases to active regulation
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 21 August 2024 | The CMA closed the Apple and Google Competition Act investigations on administrative-priority grounds, without an infringement decision. |
| 1 January 2025 | The DMCCA digital-markets regime came into force. |
| 23 January 2025 | The CMA opened separate SMS investigations into Apple’s and Google’s mobile platforms, covering operating systems, app distribution and browsers. Potential interventions included easier access to alternative app downloads, external payments and key platform functionality. See the CMA’s investigation announcement. |
| 22 October 2025 | The CMA designated both Apple and Google as having SMS in their respective mobile platforms. The designations cover operating systems, app distribution, browsers and browser engines and last five years. SMS designation is not itself a finding of wrongdoing or an immediate conduct requirement. Read the designation announcement. |
| 10 February 2026 | The CMA announced proposed commitments intended to improve app-review, app-ranking and data-use processes. Apple’s package also addressed interoperable access to certain iOS functionality. |
| 1 April 2026 | The CMA published final commitments from Apple and Google and opened a call for evidence about app-store rules across jurisdictions. The relevant case pages are available for Apple and Google. |
| 30 June 2026 | The CMA began consulting on proposed steering requirements for both platforms, including whether developers should be able to direct users outside apps to complete transactions elsewhere on fair and reasonable terms. It also separately considered NFC access on Apple’s platform. |
The CMA’s February announcement and its mobile-platform programme provide the latest regulatory context.
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The new framework is broader than the original payment controversy. Depending on how the commitments and proposed requirements operate in practice, developers could see:
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- clearer and more predictable app-review processes;
- greater transparency around ranking and moderation decisions;
- stronger safeguards against self-preferencing;
- limits on how platform data is used to compete with third-party apps;
- access to selected platform functionality previously controlled by Apple; and
- a route to direct users to external payment options.
That last point should not be overstated. External-payment availability is not the same as complete payment freedom. A steering requirement may govern how links or messages are presented without giving every app access to every payment provider, removing every platform charge or eliminating platform security rules.
Nor does an alternative payment route guarantee lower prices. Developers may still face payment-processing costs, fraud and chargeback risk, tax obligations, customer-support work, subscription-management responsibilities and technical integration costs. Whether savings reach customers will depend on each business’s pricing decisions and the final regulatory terms.
The CMA has also indicated that formal conduct requirements could follow quickly if the commitments are not implemented effectively. Developers should therefore distinguish between a published commitment, a binding conduct requirement and actual day-to-day changes in store policy.
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What this could mean for consumers
Consumers may eventually get more ways to pay for digital services or subscriptions, and greater competition could put downward pressure on some prices. Better access to apps that depend on interoperable platform features could also expand choice.
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But there is no guarantee that apps will become cheaper. Regulatory intervention changes the conditions in which developers and platforms operate; it does not set retail prices.
External payment flows can also change the customer experience. Refunds, subscription cancellation, purchase histories and dispute handling may no longer work through the platform’s native billing tools. Additional payment prompts may make apps less straightforward, while moving outside a platform’s billing system can create extra fraud or phishing risks. Privacy, parental controls and other protections may also operate differently.
For users, the likely near-term effect is therefore limited. The 2026 measures primarily address business practices, and their consumer impact will depend on implementation, developer adoption and enforcement.
What happens next?
As of 18 August 2026, the key questions are:
- Will steering requirements become final? The CMA’s June consultations concern proposed requirements, so their final scope and conditions remain important.
- How will Apple and Google implement their commitments? A formal commitment on paper may have less practical effect if the process remains difficult, costly or confusing for developers.
- Will the CMA impose additional conduct requirements? The regulator can move beyond commitments where necessary, subject to the relevant legal process.
- How will enforcement work? Developers, Apple and Google may challenge interpretations or decisions, and the CMA may need to test the new framework in practice.
- How far will the UK measures reach? The regime concerns UK digital activities and UK-facing businesses or consumers; it does not automatically change app-store rules worldwide.
The key distinction
The August 2024 closures were procedural, not a verdict that Apple and Google had won. The old Competition Act cases ended without deciding liability, while the CMA moved the broader dispute into a regime with powers to designate platforms, impose tailored conduct requirements and pursue wider pro-competition measures.
The significant development is therefore not that the original probes disappeared. It is that the regulatory question changed from “Will these two old investigations produce an infringement decision?” to “What specific obligations will apply to Apple and Google’s mobile platforms in the UK, and will they work in practice?”
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