UK Probe Into Apple's Mobile Browser Restrictions Shut Down After Apple Argues Regulators Waited Too Long to Open Investigation

[MacRumors]

The UK's Competition and Market Authority (CMA) will not be looking into Apple's policies on mobile browsers and cloud gaming services after Apple won an appeal that will force the UK regulators to drop the investigation, reports Reuters.

The CMA in November launched an investigation into the cloud gaming and mobile browser restrictions put in place by both Apple and Google, suggesting that the two companies were holding back innovation and increasing costs for web developers, cloud gaming service providers, and browser vendors.

"Many UK businesses and web developers tell us they feel that they are being held back by restrictions set by Apple and Google," said Sarah Cardell, interim chief executive of the CMA, at the time. The investigation was part of a larger examination of the "duopoly" of Apple and Google on mobile ecosystems that launched in 2021.

Apple in January filed an appeal with the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) pointing out the CMA had missed key timing requirements, and thus should not be able to continue the investigation. The CMA was supposed to end its inquiry within 18 months, and there were deadlines that needed to be adhered to, but Apple said that the proper timeline wasn't followed.

The Appeal Tribunal agreed with Apple, and said that the CMA should have launched the market investigation at the same time that it published the duopoly report in June 2021. By not doing so, it "erred in law."

If the CMA had continued with its investigation, it would have been be able to ask Apple for in-depth information on its browser and cloud gaming practices, and ultimately could have forced Apple to change the way that it operates.

The CMA says that it is disappointed in the ruling and is considering an appeal.

Article Link: UK Probe Into Apple's Mobile Browser Restrictions Shut Down After Apple Argues Regulators Waited Too Long to Open Investigation

 

[antiprotest]

Apple is the authority in waiting too long. They must be happy to finally weaponize their expertise.

 

[From Win to Mac]

Whichever side of the law you're on, it's when you're in trouble that you realize how good lawyers are worth their weight in gold.

 

[HiVolt]

One browser to rule them all...

And this is what Microsoft was sued for in the 90's...

The crap big tech gets away with these days is beyond laughable.

 

[tomtad]

Bet the lawyers are loving it

 

[dannyyankou]

You snooze, you lose

 

[cocky jeremy]

One browser to rule them all...

And this is what Microsoft was sued for in the 90's...

The crap big tech gets away with these days is beyond laughable.

Like.. Making rules for their own platforms that no developers are forced to use? The horror.

 

[Realityck]

Apple in January filed an appeal with the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) pointing out the CMA had missed key timing requirements, and thus should not be able to continue the investigation. The CMA was supposed to end its inquiry within 18 months, and there were deadlines that needed to be adhered to, but Apple said that the proper timeline wasn't followed.

Hah, nice to see people that try to create their own inquiries into the tech industry fail because of procrastination.

 

[Krizoitz]

One browser to rule them all...

And this is what Microsoft was sued for in the 90's...

The crap big tech gets away with these days is beyond laughable.

That’s not why Microsoft was sued in the 90’s. What’s laughable is people confidently asserting things that aren’t true as if they were experts.

 

[FaustsHausUK]

One browser to rule them all...

And this is what Microsoft was sued for in the 90's...

The crap big tech gets away with these days is beyond laughable.

You are forced to use the WebKit _engine_ on iOS and iPad OS, but anyone can build a browser on top of it and innovate as they so choose. It hasn't stopped Firefox, Google's Chrome team and others creating great browser experiences.

Outside of iOS and iPad OS, besides the ridiculous dominance of Chrome itself, Chromium is also under the hood in Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, Amazon Silk and Samsung Internet among many others. Not to mention it's the basis of Electron, which numerous desktop apps are built on - just on my personal Mac, I can name Slack, Discord, TIDAL, VSCode, Dropbox and Github for Desktop. I'm sure I have more. If anyone's the new antitrust-era Microsoft, it's Google.

Given that, if iOS and iPad OS were opened up to other browser engines, do you think you're going to have much more choice? We'll get native Firefox (which I personally haven't had any interest in for a decade) and... Chromium dominating yet another platform. It's the illusion of choice.

 

[HiVolt]

You are forced to use the WebKit _engine_ on iOS and iPad OS, but anyone can build a browser on top of it and innovate as they so choose. It hasn't stopped Firefox, Google's Chrome team and others creating great browser experiences.

And all the browsers use the same engine, which either works or it doesnt on certain sites, or is buggy.

And the different "browsers" are just over the top feature different, not the engine, which to me is like putting lipstick on a pig.

I never use Safari on a Mac, because it has stupid restrictions, yet I am effectively use Safari on iPhone and iPad.

 

[FaustsHausUK]

And all the browsers use the same engine, which either works or it doesnt on certain sites, or is buggy.

And the different "browsers" are just over the top feature different, not the engine, which to me is like putting lipstick on a pig.

I never use Safari on a Mac, because it has stupid restrictions, yet I am effectively use Safari on iPhone and iPad.

Your first two sentences could describe the iOS situation, or the "damned near everything is Chromium elsewhere" situation of Windows, MacOS and Android. It's all the same thing! Really what we need is for a truly company/platform-agnostic engine that implements web standards, then everyone builds on that. Take everyone's vested business interests out of the equation and make them compete on user experience. Obviously not going to happen - I've been developing for the web since 1996 and all that happens is the cudgel changes hands every few years.

 

[Porco]

So if I understand the development in this Safari investigation correctly, Apple’s successful argument against the regulators is that they weren’t snappy enough? 😂

 

[HiVolt]

Your first two sentences could describe the iOS situation, or the "damned near everything is Chromium elsewhere" situation of Windows, MacOS and Android. It's all the same thing! Really what we need is for a truly company/platform-agnostic engine that implements web standards, then everyone builds on that. Take everyone's vested business interests out of the equation and make them compete on user experience. Obviously not going to happen - I've been developing for the web since 1996 and all that happens is the cudgel changes hands every few years.

Nope, I've been happily using FireFox for 15 years or so and its independent engine of Chromium or WebKit.

 

[eatrains]

I never use Safari on a Mac, because it has stupid restrictions, yet I am effectively use Safari on iPhone and iPad.

What kind of restrictions?

 

[MacProFCP]

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for apathetic bureaucrats to instruct common citizens to run around from office to office in a seemingly endless line of frustration, only to get all the paperwork done two minutes too late.

Regardless of my position in this case, I am thrilled that a government finally gets a taste of their own, contemptuous, medicine.

 

[1284814]

Well now we definitely have to force them to allow side loads or just make jailbreak more secured

 

[Realityck]

I never use Safari on a Mac, because it has stupid restrictions, yet I am effectively use Safari on iPhone and iPad.

For MacOS 13.4 beta 1, I use it mostly in private mode, only thing that requires cookies/data cache in normal mode is Netflix for retaining logon. It’s also a lot faster then Firefox latest version. I don’t use cookies at all unless required.

A older comparison of speed.

SpeedoMeter2 bowser benchmark comparisons on 24" Imac @ .5 GB download
Firefox 108.0.2 = 259
Safari 16.2 (18614.4.1.500.1) = 358

 

[sw1tcher]

The Appeal Tribunal agreed with Apple, and said that the CMA should have launched the market investigation at the same time that it published the duopoly report in June 2021. By not doing so, it "erred in law."

Solution: issue a new report in 2024 and launch a new market investigation at the same time.

 

[gregmancuso]

And all the browsers use the same engine, which either works or it doesnt on certain sites, or is buggy.

And the different "browsers" are just over the top feature different, not the engine, which to me is like putting lipstick on a pig.

I never use Safari on a Mac, because it has stupid restrictions, yet I am effectively use Safari on iPhone and iPad.

Talk about “lipstick on a pig”. What exactly do you think EVERY browser other than Safari or Firefox are doing everywhere other than iOS? Different wrappers on a common Chrome / Chromium / Blink engine.

Say what you will about WebKit - but it IS open source. If anything should be well supported it is WebKit. Instead you have Chrome / Chromium / Blink dominating the world and many sites are built to support the proprietary features of the engine. Many are only tested against Chrome and to hell with any other engine. This is really not all that different from IE back in the day where there was the “open web” or most sites built to the proprietary IE engine “standards”.

 

[sw1tcher]

Bet the lawyers are loving it

Is it because they went to McDonald's to celebrate their victory?

 

[HiVolt]

Talk about “lipstick on a pig”. What exactly do you think EVERY browser other than Safari or Firefox are doing everywhere other than iOS? Different wrappers on a common Chrome / Chromium / Blink engine.

Say what you will about WebKit - but it IS open source. If anything should be well supported it is WebKit. Instead you have Chrome / Chromium / Blink dominating the world and many sites are built to support the proprietary features of the engine. Many are only tested against Chrome and to hell with any other engine. This is really not all that different from IE back in the day where there was the “open web” or most sites built to the proprietary IE engine “standards”.

Apple does not allow proper content filtering plugins/extensions in Safari or Webkit based browsers. Thats why I refuse to use them.

 

[CWallace]

...or just make jailbreak more secured

That sounds like an oxymoron.

 

[coolfactor]

One browser to rule them all...

And this is what Microsoft was sued for in the 90's...

The crap big tech gets away with these days is beyond laughable.

The difference is that Microsoft was not following industry standards, but plowing their own proprietary path. Website engineers always needed to build two versions of their code ... one for standards-compliant browsers and one for Internet Explorer. So glad those days are behind us.

It's important to distinguish between WebKit and Safari. There are plenty of browsers on iOS, and each is free to implement their own features, but they must use the system-provided WebKit rendering engine.

Not one browser. Users have a choice of browser. And WebKit is adhering tightly to web standards, not being proprietary. So very different.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

What kind of restrictions?

Apple restricts their ability to use invasive cookies and other methods to build a data profile of people.