UK Competition Crackdown Could Harm Users,Apple Says

Apple has raised concerns over Britain's plans to tighten regulation of mobile operatingsystems, wamning the measures could damage user security and hinderinnovation. According to Reuters, the company argued that proposals under review by theUK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) may require it to share technology withforeign rivals at no cost, a move it says could undermine its business model.

The CMA is currently assessing whether to assign Apple and Google's Android system'strategic market status" which would allow the regulator to impose new obligations aimedat boosting competition. Per Reuters, Apple contends that such a designation could weakenprotections for consumer privacy and security while limiting the company's capacity todevelop new products.

"We're concermed these EU-style rules the UK is advancing are bad for users and bad fordevelopers" an Apple spokesperson said."This approach undermines the privacy andsecurity protections our users have come to expect, hampers our ability to innovate, andforces us to give away our technology for free to foreign competitors."