Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

March 11 (Xinhua)-- Apple told a court in London on Friday that British competition regulators had no right to investigate its mobile browser on the grounds that such investigations were long overdue.

The UK's Competition and Market Authority (CMA) launched a full investigation into cloud games and mobile browsers in November last year because of concerns that Apple and Google had abused their dominant positions. In January, Apple appealed to the London Competition Court of Appeal, arguing that such investigations were "invalid".

Timothy Otty, Apple's lawyer, said on Friday that market research was required by law to start in June last year, just after CMA released its report on the mobile ecosystem. The report found that the two tech giants had a "duopoly".

In a court filing, Mr Otti added that Apple had "suffered a serious bias" as a result of CMA's decision and "had to transfer management time and technical resources from its business activities many times".

However, James Eadie, a lawyer for CMA, said the regulator complied with the legal time limit because it initially decided not to launch an investigation in December 2021.

In court filings, Edie argued that if the judge invalidated the CMA investigation, it would terminate the agency's market research, which would leave CMA's concerns about the lack of competition in mobile browsers and cloud games unresolved, causing significant damage to the public interest.

On the day of the hearing on Friday, CMA said it would extend the deadline for an investigation into the terms of Apple's App Store until May. The agency updated its public case records on Friday, requiring further "analysis and review."

The investigation began in March 2021, when CMA launched an investigation into allegations that Apple used its app store rules to restrict competition. Apple immediately said it would cooperate with the investigation. CMA did not elaborate further on why more time was needed to investigate.

The investigation into Apple's app store mainly involved the company charging app developers a 30% commission and requiring them to use its in-app payment system. An important case is the legal battle between game developer Epic Games and Apple.

The CMA investigation focuses on whether Apple dominates the distribution of apps for Apple devices in the UK, and investigates whether Apple has imposed unfair or anti-competitive terms on app developers, resulting in fewer user choices and higher fees.

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