The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is closing its investigation into Apple's in-app payments system.
In a statement, the CMA confirmed that while the closure of the investigation “does not constitute a decision of the CMA”, it was closing the case “for reasons of administrative priority”.
“The CMA will continue to monitor Apple's conduct in the marketplace,” the statement said.
“(This) decision to close the case for reasons of administrative priority does not preclude, prejudge or limit the CMA's ability, if appropriate, to open a future investigation pursuant to the Chapter II prohibition, or to take action with respect to the conduct considered to be part of the investigation.”
The agency also noted that since this was a “rapidly evolving” case and any action could “require a significant period of time”, it decided to close the case after an internal review.
The European Commission began investigating Apple in March to determine whether its new trading terms violated the DMA. Its preliminary findings, published in June, found that Apple was in breach of the new regulations and “identified a range of potential harms arising from Apple's requirements for certain developers to use its proprietary payment system to process in-app purchases for digital content, which could be avoided if app developers were able to choose their own payment service providers and transact directly with users.”
Apple recently updated its EU trading terms to allow developers to link to third-party payment systems or promote offerings from other platforms that don’t use iOS’s built-in payment system.