Japan forces Apple and Google to open up their mobile platforms The Register

Japan's parliament has passed a law that will require Apple and Google to allow access to third-party app stores and payment providers on devices running their mobile operating systems.

The Act on Promotion of Competition in Certain Smartphone Software Passed the House of Councillors yesterday and will come into force within the next 18 months following Cabinet approval.

The law gives local governments the power to designate “designated providers” of a certain size – currently achieved only by Apple and Google – and to require those providers to do three things:

Allow third-party app stores on the device. Allow application developers to use third-party billing services. Allow users to change default settings in simple steps and provide a choice screen for tools such as browsers.

In addition, the following three are prohibited:

Favoring your services over competitors' services in displaying search results without a legitimate reason Using data obtained about competitor applications for your own applications Preventing application developers from using OS-controlled features with the same level of performance as those used by designated providers

The last item on the list is a red flag for Apple, as iGiant doesn't allow third-party developers to use the iPhone's NFC chip for payments. Requiring that level of access is a big deal, especially since non-compliance could result in fines of up to 20% of relevant sales.

Mmm, Apple Turnover

Japanese lawmakers have justified the law on several grounds, but first, that the smartphone market has become an oligopoly, making it very difficult for potential competitors to gain a foothold and deterring innovators from even attempting to enter the market.

The rationale is that existing antitrust laws are not a useful tool for regulating the smartphone ecosystem: “Self-correction through market mechanisms such as new entrants is difficult, and proving anticompetitive conduct in individual antitrust cases takes a very long time,” the summary states. [PDF] A law issued by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC).

Finally, the European Commission feels that Japan needs to enact its own legislation, given international legislative responses such as the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), the UK's Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill, and the ongoing antitrust case in the United States to achieve similar objectives.

The Fair Trade Commission plans to ask relevant ministries for their opinions on issues such as security, privacy and child protection as it implements the law. Discussions on security could be particularly important, as the law gives designated providers leeway to argue that third-party plans may pose security issues and propose different approaches.

Although Apple has sometimes argued that security would be a major concern if it allowed third-party app stores access to iThings, it has complied with requirements under the DMA to open up its devices to competition.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/13/japan_smartphone_software_law/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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