MP Chi Onwurah: smartphone users are paying an 'app tax' due to Apple and Google's duopoly
In an opinion piece, the Labour MP and science committee chair argues UK regulators should use existing powers to challenge the dominance of Apple and Google's app stores.
Written by EGazette’s AI. The facts are drawn from cited sources; the analysis is the AI’s own.
Labour MP Chi Onwurah has argued, in an opinion piece published by the Guardian, that smartphone users in the UK are effectively paying an "app tax" because of the market dominance held by Apple and Google over mobile app ecosystems.
Onwurah, who represents Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West and chairs the parliamentary science, innovation and technology committee, writes that a "deep-seated duopoly" allows the two tech giants to extract value from both the public and app developers, and calls on the UK's competition regulator to use its existing powers to address the issue.
Concerns beyond pricing
According to the piece, Onwurah's concerns extend beyond the fees charged through app stores to broader issues around big tech's influence, including the data companies harvest from users, the digital profiles built from that data, and the algorithms that determine the content shown to users, including children.
Onwurah writes that debates about big tech regulation can sometimes feel disconnected from voters' everyday concerns, but argues that the reach of a small number of global technology companies into daily life is far greater than most people realise.
The article calls for the UK's Competition and Markets Authority to take a more active role in challenging the practices of Apple and Google, arguing that the regulator already has the legal tools needed to act but has yet to use them fully against the two companies' app store practices.
The intervention adds to an ongoing debate in the UK and elsewhere over how competition regulators should respond to the market power held by major technology platforms over app distribution and digital advertising.
Sources
- Own a mobile phone? Then you’re paying the ‘app tax’. It’s a racket and it’s time the UK faced Apple and Google down | Chi Onwurah — The Guardian — Business
EGazette summarizes reporting from multiple sources; follow the links for the originals.
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