UK proposes changes to Apple and Google's app payment rules

The UK’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has proposed major changes to Apple and Google’s app payment rules, aimed at reducing costs for app developers and lowering prices for consumers.

The proposals could require Apple and Google to allow app developers to direct users to their alternative payment methods.

Apple currently does not allow this practice in the UK, while Google imposes various restrictions on it, which forces developers to pay a fixed platform fee.

The CMA says that if the change is implemented, the fees charged by Apple and Google must be fair and reasonable and the savings made should either be passed on to users in the form of lower prices or be spent by developers on further innovation in their apps.

The move comes after the CMA granted strategic market status to Apple and Google in the mobile market in October last year, giving the regulator the power to intervene to promote greater competition among these big tech companies, benefiting consumers and businesses.