The CMA originally planned to launch an antitrust investigation into Apple in the following two areas:

1. Apple bans cloud gaming services from the App Store

This means that developers cannot provide cloud gaming-related applications on the App Store. Some believe the company is doing this to protect its own share of gaming revenue and prevent competition from its own Apple Arcade subscription gaming service.

2. Only the WebKit browser engine is allowed

While Apple allows any developer to create their own web browser and put it on the App Store, Apple only approves browsers that use its own WebKit rendering engine.

The crux of the problem is that the CMA began to intervene in the investigation in June last year and missed the deadline for conducting antitrust investigations. UK law says the CMA should announce its investigation on the same day it publishes its preliminary findings.

A dispute ensued between the two parties over what the word “shall” in the legal clauses meant. Apple believes that “shall” in the legal terms should be understood as “must” (must), which means that CMA’s investigation after the deadline is not itself compliant. However, CMA believes that “shall” should be understood as “should”, and CMA believes that it can intervene in the investigation in the follow-up time.

The CMA said it was disappointed with the ruling and was considering an appeal.

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The CMA has long advocated a robust approach to reviewing acquisition transactions, particularly between large technology companies. At the end of November last year, the CMA rejected Meta’s acquisition of Giphy, saying the deal was an impediment to competition in the market.

It is expected that the CMA this time may pay close attention to whether Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard will restrict competitors’ access to Activision Blizzard’s games to the detriment of competitors.

In addition to the CMA, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard has also been investigated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States. In March, it was reported that the FTC had launched an antitrust review of the deal, requesting more information from Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. Last month, FTC Chairman Lina Khan also confirmed the news.

In January, Microsoft announced that it would acquire game developer and interactive entertainment content publisher Activision Blizzard for $95 per share in cash, a deal worth approximately $69 billion. After the deal is completed, Microsoft will be the third-highest revenue gaming company in the world, behind only Tencent and Sony.

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