Japan: Released Final Report on Competitive Assessment of the Mobile Ecosystem

On 16 June 2023, Japan's Headquarters for Digital Market Competition held the Digital Market Competition Conference, during which it released the "Final Report on Competitive Assessment of the Mobile Ecosystem", which reviews competition in the mobile smartphone operating system market. The report analyses areas of concern in relation to competition in the mobile ecosystem, including competition concerns in relation to app stores, browser functionality restrictions, and pre-installed content and settings. The report includes several recommendations for improving the competitiveness of the smartphone operating systems market, which is dominated by Apple and Android systems. Recommendations include requiring operating system providers to remove barriers for users to purchase apps via other app stores or means as long as sufficient data privacy and protection measures are in place, and placing restrictions on preferential software services that would be pushed by the same company that owns the operating system.