9to5Mac

UK antitrust body will be able to fine Apple and Google 5% of their global turnover per day

By Ben Lovejoy

The UK antitrust body, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), will be given legal powers enabling it to fine Apple and other tech giants billions of dollars. This is an apparent second U-turn in British government plans.

The CMA’s powers will now go even further than originally announced, allowing it to fine companies 5% of their daily global turnover per day…

Background If you’re not up-to-date with the background to this, a neck brace is recommended to avoid whiplash.

The UK opened an antitrust investigation into Apple back in March 2021.

The UK’s competition watchdog today announced plans to determine whether the App Store restricts competition. The government announced that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will be running the investigation.

A second investigation followed, this time into both Apple and Google. That one concluded that both Apple and Google do indeed have too much power.

In particular, Apple is able to impose whatever App Store terms and commissions the company likes, because anyone wanting to sell an iPhone app can only do so via Apple.

This was a very worrying development for Apple, since the British government said that it would give the CMA the power to overrule the policies of tech giants, and to levy fines of up to 10% of their total global turnover.

This is known as having statutory powers: the ability to impose penalties directly, without needing to involve parliament. Continue reading to learn more about what this means for Apple.