UK Regulator Issues First Direct Fine; Defers Action on App Stores
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued its first fine using new direct consumer enforcement powers, signaling a more aggressive oversight posture. However, the regulator has simultaneously demurred from imposing specific conduct requirements on Apple and Google regarding their app stores. This suggests a phased or uncertain approach as new digital market regulations come into force.
- The regulator's new authority is granted by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act, which became effective on April 6, 2025. This legislation empowers the CMA to directly fine firms up to 10% of their global annual turnover for consumer law violations, bypassing the previous requirement to first go through the courts. - The inaugural fine of £473,000 was levied against Euro Car Parks in December 2025. The penalty was for a procedural failure: not responding to a legally binding information request for three months, which the company argued was due to mistaking the CMA's emails for a phishing scam. - This fine represented 75% of the maximum possible for such a breach (1% of annual turnover), indicating a strict approach to enforcing investigative compliance under the new powers. - The CMA's deferral on app stores follows the closure of its previous Competition Act investigations into Apple and Google in August 2024. Those cases, running since 2021 and 2022 respectively, focused on concerns that mandatory use of proprietary in-app payment systems was anti-competitive. - The regulator explicitly stated it closed the prior cases because the new DMCC Act provides "more efficient and effective tools" to investigate and remedy issues in digital markets. - Under the DMCC Act, both Apple and Google were designated as having "Strategic Market Status" (SMS) in late 2025, which is the formal trigger allowing the CMA to impose conduct requirements on their mobile ecosystems. - Rather than immediately imposing rules, the CMA announced in February 2026 that it had secured voluntary commitments from both Apple and Google. These include pledges for fairer app review processes and to not use developer data to gain an unfair advantage. - The CMA is currently consulting on these proposed commitments, framing them as "important first steps" while it continues to evaluate a wider range of measures to improve competition in the UK's £28 billion app economy.
