The UK’s Competition & Markets Authority has announced a plan for reviewing the app store rules of Apple and Google, including those that have long annoyed app developers and especially Spotify.
Apple’s rules that prevent developers like Spotify from sign-posting external websites within apps are now set to be scrutinised this autumn, while its rules on in-app payments are likely to be considered next year. Spotify would like all those rules changed to its advantage, as has already started to happen in some other countries.
These reviews are part of a series of “targeted and proportionate actions” proposed by the CMA which, its CEO Sarah Cardell says, will “enable UK app developers to remain at the forefront of global innovation while ensuring UK consumers receive a world-class experience”.
Time is “of the essence” when it comes to this work, she adds, because – as “competition agencies and courts globally take action in these markets” – it is “essential the UK doesn’t fall behind”.
Under Apple’s original App Store rules, digital subscription services like Spotify that want to sell subscriptions through their iOS apps had to use Apple’s own payments platform, which charges a 15-30% commission.
They also couldn’t sign-post within their apps any websites where payments could also be made without Apple taking a commission. Spotify argued that these restrictions were anti-competitive, especially as Apple has a competing music service.
Through a mixture of lobbying and litigation, regulators and courts have forced a change to Apple’s rules in some countries – including the US and EU – especially in relation to sign-posting external payment options. Spotify, and other app developers, obviously want the revised rules to apply everywhere in the world.
The CMA has already looked into these rules, but last summer it closed an ongoing investigation after Parliament passed the Digital Markets, Competition And Consumers Act. That act increased the CMA’s powers when it comes to regulating dominant tech companies and the regulator felt that its review of app store rules should be undertaken in the context of its new powers.
That first meant classifying Apple and Google’s respective app platforms as having ‘strategic market status’ under the new act. The CMA explained earlier this year that, if a platform is classified as having that status, the regulator is empowered to “impose conduct requirements or introduce pro-competition interventions to achieve positive outcomes for UK consumers and businesses”.
Yesterday the CMA confirmed it is now formally proposing to “designate Apple and Google with strategic market status”, specifically in relation to their respective mobile platforms. It has also published ‘roadmaps’ setting out the order in which it will review the two companies’ different app policies, assuming the SMS status if confirmed in October following a final consultation on the matter.
Although app developers have moaned about both Apple and Google’s app policies, Apple’s rules are generally stricter and therefore subject to more criticism.
The CMA’s Apple roadmap says that, once SMS status is confirmed, one of the priority issues for review will be whether or not Apple should be required to “allow app developers to direct their potential customers off the App Store”, ie to include links to a website within their apps, including to make payments outside of Apple’s transactions system.
Among the issues that might then be considered in 2026 is whether or not Apple should be required “to allow alternative payment methods for in-app purchases beyond Apple’s own in-app payment system”.
Apple will likely lobby hard against any regulator interventions in the UK, and then, ultimately but reluctantly, comply once the CMA orders any changes to its App Store rules.
