The country’s Competition and Markets Authority suspects that Apple allegedly uses anti-competitive practices, blocking fair competition.

The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (which we will shorten to CMA onwards) announced a launch of an investigation, after „several developers [reported] that Apple’s terms and conditions are unfair and could break competition law.” The company is preventing third-party developers from using their unique payment system. (This thought could be familiar: Epic Games flipped the table on Apple and Google for this reason… but the Epic-Apple case isn’t even going to start in the UK!)

Another aspect of the investigation will be the commission that Apple takes from each transaction that happens within the Apple App Store. It could be up to 30%. „Millions of us use apps every day to check the weather, play a game or order a takeaway. So, complaints that Apple is using its market position to set terms that are unfair or may restrict competition and choice — potentially causing customers to lose out when buying and using apps — warrant scrutiny.

Our ongoing examination into digital markets has already uncovered some worrying trends. We know that businesses, as well as consumers, may suffer real harm if anti-competitive practices by big tech go unchecked. That’s why we’re pressing on with setting up the new Digital Markets Unit and launching new investigations wherever we have grounds to do so,” Andrea Coscelli, the chief executive of CMA, said.

So we have a bit of an unusual situation on our hands: Epic Games’ case was dismissed in the United Kingdom before it started, even though they had the same comments that we just heard from the CMA. Tim Sweeney’s company should slam the table and say that they had the same idea…

Source: Gamesindustry