The Competition and Markets Authority said it would
undertake a "market study" into the matter to see whether the pair's
effective duopoly was stifling competition and ripping off consumers, or
hurting businesses like app developers.
Governments around the world are looking at strengthening
the regulation of U.S. tech giants that have become even more powerful during
the COVID-19 pandemic, and there are multiple investigations globally into
their market positions including in the United States and the European Union.
Britain is setting up a dedicated unit within the CMA to
keep the tech giants in check and encourage digital competition but said it
needed to start work probing iPhone maker Apple and the Google-powered Android
system as soon as possible.
"Our ongoing work into big tech has already uncovered
some worrying trends and we know consumers and businesses could be harmed if
they go unchecked," CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said in a
statement on Tuesday.
The CMA said the new study into mobile ecosystems would be
broader than some of the other competition probes it already has into Apple's
App Store and Google's Privacy Sandbox.
Last year, the CMA concluded an investigation into digital
advertising, concluding that Google and Facebook have developed unassailable
market positions, with the two accounting for nearly 80% of UK's digital
advertising spend. It recommended regulatory changes as a result. -Reuters