UK Antitrust Regulator CMA Refused Permission to Attraction Apple Probe Ruling

Britain’s antitrust regulator on Wednesday refused permission to enchantment towards a ruling that it had no energy to open an investigation into Apple’s cellular browser and cloud gaming companies.

Apple gained an enchantment in March towards the choice by the Competitors and Markets Authority (CMA) to open a full investigation into the dominance of Apple and Alphabet’s Google in cellular browsers.

The Competitors Attraction Tribunal quashed the choice to open the investigation and on Wednesday refused the CMA’s software for permission to enchantment towards that ruling.

The CMA can nonetheless take its bid for permission to enchantment towards the tribunal’s ruling on to the Court docket of Attraction.

“We’re rigorously contemplating the tribunal’s resolution and are contemplating our subsequent steps,” a CMA spokesperson stated.

The CMA had stated in March that the ruling “dangers considerably undermining the CMA’s potential to effectively and successfully examine and intervene in markets”.

However, in its resolution refusing permission to enchantment, the tribunal stated that the regulation on when the CMA can open a market investigation is obvious.

“The letter of the regulation issues, even when it generates undesirable or unlucky outcomes,” the tribunal stated. 

© Thomson Reuters 2023