UK CMA Proposes Letting App Developers Steer Users Away From Apple and Google Payments

Britain's competition regulator on Tuesday proposed allowing UK app developers to steer users toward payment options outside Apple and Google's app stores, a direct challenge to the 30% commissions that underpin the mobile economy. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the changes would remove restrictions that currently prevent developers from pointing users to cheaper web-based checkouts.

Any fee the platforms charge for allowing such steering must be fair, reasonable, and lower than current app store commissions, with the savings passed to consumers or reinvested in innovation, the CMA stated.

Google Complies, Apple Silent

Google said it had already implemented the changes the CMA is proposing, citing new Play Store terms introduced earlier this month that let developers send users off-platform to complete transactions under certain conditions. Apple did not respond to a request for comment, consistent with its pattern of fighting steering provisions in nearly every jurisdiction that has tried to impose them.

The CMA is also weighing a requirement that would force Apple to open access to the near-field communication (NFC) chip that powers contactless payments, allowing developers to build tap-to-pay features directly into iOS apps rather than routing everyone through Apple Pay. That provision mirrors a similar demand from European regulators under the Digital Markets Act.

• The proposals sit under the UK's new digital markets regime, which lets the regulator impose conduct requirements on firms with strategic market status without litigating each abuse after the fact.
• The Netherlands ordered Apple to allow alternative payments for dating apps, but Apple responded with a fee structure that left the economics barely changed, a precedent the CMA appears to have learned from.
• The EU has charged Apple with breaking antitrust law over its anti-steering rules, and regulators in Tokyo and Seoul are pursuing similar actions.

Regulatory Convergence on the Toll Booth

The asymmetry between the two platforms is telling. Android has always permitted sideloading and a degree of payment flexibility that iOS does not, so the CMA's proposals land harder on Apple, whose business model leans more heavily on the closed loop the regulator is trying to prise open.

The CMA's proposals are now open for consultation, and the platforms will have their say before anything is finalised. What is already clear is the direction: regulators in London, Brussels, Tokyo, and Seoul are converging on the same conclusion about the same toll booth. The question is no longer whether developers can point users to a cheaper door, but how much the platforms will be allowed to charge for the privilege of opening it.