CMA Moves to Secure Fairer App Store Rules for UK Businesses
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced a set of proposed commitments from Apple and Google that could make it easier for UK businesses that rely on app stores to reach their customers.
The CMA is inviting views on these commitments until 3 March 2026, with plans for them to take effect from 1 April 2026.
What’s happening?
The CMA has been working with Apple and Google since both companies were given “strategic market status” (SMS) in late 2025.
Almost all UK mobile devices run either Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android system, an effective duopoly, and the status gives the CMA powers to require changes where it sees problems for competition or fairness.
Rather than going straight to imposing conduct requirements, which can take time to implement, voluntary commitments have been agreed with Apple and Google to deliver immediate improvements.
What the commitments mean in practice
The UK app economy is big business, valued at £28 billion as of 2025 and supporting around 400,000 jobs. Many UK companies now depend on mobile apps as a core part of how they serve customers.
For UK businesses and developers, the proposed measures focus on four practical areas:
- App review: Apple and Google are committing to distribute apps on their app stores in a fair, objective and transparent way. They will not discriminate against apps that compete with their own, nor will they give preferential treatment to their own apps.
- App ranking: The new commitments mean Apple and Google should not favour their own apps, nor push down apps that compete with them.
- Data collection: Apple and Google have committed not to use data they gather from developers during an app review unfairly; for example, not using insights from your app to develop competing features.
- Interoperability: Apple has agreed to make it easier for developers to more easily request interoperable access to features and functionality within their mobile operating systems. They have also committed to considering requests fairly and objectively. Monitoring
To ensure the commitments are met, the CMA will publish reports using data from Apple and Google. This will include:
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Percentage of apps submitted for review that are approved, rejected or appealed.
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Time taken for app reviews.
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The number and outcome of complaints.
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Interoperability requests made to Apple, outcomes and how quickly the requests are handled.
What next?
Chief Executive of the CMA Sarah Cardell said that the proposed measures are “important first steps while we continue to work on a broad range of additional measures to improve Apple and Google’s app store services in the UK, for example, by enabling more choice and innovation in digital wallets”.
The CMA is looking for views on the proposed commitments by 3 March 2026, with implementation planned from 1 April 2026.
