Apple has successfully halted a U.K. antitrust investigation into the company's alleged dominance of the mobile browser market.
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), its competition watchdog, referred Apple to a formal investigation in November. Apple later appealed to the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal, which sided with the company in a ruling today.
Tribunal judges agreed with Apple that the CMA was too late in publishing a notice and starting the consultation process for the probe, deeming it invalid.
- According to Tech Times, Apple's successful appeal could limit the CMA's power to investigate other tech giants.
- The agency agreed that the judgment "risks substantially undermining the CMA's ability to efficiently and effectively investigate and intervene in markets where competition is not working well."
- The CMA is now considering its own appeal of today's ruling.
The CMA first launched the formal investigation into Google and Apple's dominance in the mobile browser market last fall after finding the tech giants have a "stranglehold” over web browsers, operating systems, and app stores on mobile devices.
