CMA closes its investigation into Apple's app payments "on grounds of administrative priority"

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has closed its investigation into Apple’s in-app payment system “on the grounds of administrative priority”.

In a statement posted to the gov.uk website, the CMA said it no longer considered the investigation a priority but stressed that the case’s closure “does not constitute a decision by the CMA”.

“The CMA will continue to monitor Apple’s conduct in the market. Its decision to close the case on grounds of administrative priority does not prevent, pre-judge or fetter the CMA’s ability, if appropriate, to open an investigation […] in [the] future, or to take action in respect of the conduct considered as part of the investigation”.

The statement comes over three years after the CMA commenced an investigation into the distribution of apps on iOS in the UK and a market study into “mobile ecosystems”.

The final report, which was released in June 2022, “identified a number of potential harms from Apple’s requirements on certain developers to use their proprietary payment system to process in-app purchases for digital content, which could be avoided if app developers were able to choose their own payments service providers and transact directly with users”.