Apple and Google risk a formal UK investigation over their dominance of web browsers on cell phones, according to a provisional decision targeting the tech giants’ stranglehold on mobile operating systems.
Bloomberg reports that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued a statement on Friday suggesting that mobile browser markets are not working well for businesses and millions of phone users in the UK. The agency recommended investigating Apple and Google’s activities under tougher digital markets competition rules, which will come into force next year.
According to the CMA, Apple and Google can manipulate consumer choices to make their own browsers, Safari and Chrome, “the clearest or easiest option.” The regulator expressed particular concern over Apple’s mobile browser, stating that it “is holding back innovation in the browsers we use to access…
