Regarding its open call for evidence regarding recent developments in relation to Apple’s and Google’s app store rules

On behalf of Trusted Future, a non-profit organization dedicated to the belief that we need smart well-informed policies to enhance trust throughout today’s digital ecosystem, we welcome this opportunity to provide input to the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) on its call for evidence on recent developments relating to Apple’s and Google’s app store rules.

The CMA has an opportunity to build upon the trust that has proven to be essential to enabling the UK’s thriving, innovative, and essential mobile ecosystem. To do so we encourage the CMA to use an evidence-based approach to identify demonstrable competition failures, specific consumer harm, proven interventions and to fully evaluate the necessity, efficacy and risks associated with any proposed intervention. To continue to drive trust deeper into the mobile ecosystem, it should ensure that any proposed interventions never weaken, but continue to advance the privacy, safety, and security safeguards necessary for UK progress.

At a time of such dynamic change, when trust in digital ecosystems is being challenged nearly every day, and trust has emerged as a central enabler for digital adoption, a non-pretextual procompetition differentiator, and a basis for consumer gains, we believe it’s vital that any measure that CMA considers in this domain be reviewed through a lens of trust. This will help ensure that UK users are able to take full advantage of a vibrant mobile digital ecosystem that is innovative, safe and secure, competitive and trustworthy — an ecosystem where people are able to improve their lives because they have access to trustworthy technologies that protect their privacy, safety and security.