{"id":48836,"date":"2025-08-08T15:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T19:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=48836"},"modified":"2025-08-08T15:14:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T19:14:06","slug":"japanese-mobile-software-competition-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/08\/japanese-mobile-software-competition-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Mobile Software Competition Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2025\/08\/01\/japan-mandates-apple-must-allow-third-party-app-stores-and-payment-systems\/\">Marcus Mendes<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2025\/08\/01\/japan-mandates-apple-must-allow-third-party-app-stores-and-payment-systems\/\"><p>Since 2020, Japan&rsquo;s Fair Trade Commission has <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2020\/10\/19\/antitrust-scrutiny-in-japan\/\">investigated<\/a> Apple and Google&rsquo;s dominance in the mobile market. This week, the watchdog published a series of new guidelines that the two companies must comply with, chief among them allowing third-party app stores.<\/p><p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jftc.go.jp\/file\/MSCA_Guidelines_tentative_translation.pdf\">119-page document<\/a> issued this week, the Japan Fair Trade Commission established the Mobile Software Competition Act Guidelines, which are set to come into effect on December 18.<\/p><p>In essence, the guidelines state that Apple and Google can&rsquo;t favor their apps over third-party competitors, either by leveraging user data natively collected by the operating system, or by unfairly delaying, rejecting, or hindering competitors&rsquo; apps&rsquo; presence or visibility in their respective app stores.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/open-web-advocacy.org\/blog\/japan-apple-must-lift-engine-ban-by-december\/\">Open Web Advocacy<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=44810061\">Hacker News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2025\/08\/06\/apples_webkit_rule_japan\/\">The Register<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/08\/07\/japan-non-webkit-browsers-on-iphone\/\">MacRumors<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/open-web-advocacy.org\/blog\/japan-apple-must-lift-engine-ban-by-december\/\"><p>Readers may recall that Japan recently passed the <a href=\"https:\/\/open-web-advocacy.org\/blog\/japan-ends-the-apple-browser-ban\/\">Smartphone Act<\/a>, officially the <em>Bill on the Promotion of Competition for Specified Software Used in Smartphones<\/em>. Among its most important reforms is a direct prohibition on Apple&rsquo;s long-standing ban on third-party browser engines on iOS.<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>This clause is crucial. It means that designated providers (i.e. Apple) must not only eliminate outright bans (like <a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/app-store\/review\/guidelines\/#:~:text=Apps%20that%20browse%20the%20web%20must%20use%20the%20appropriate%20WebKit%20framework%20and%20WebKit%20JavaScript.\">App Store Guideline 2.5.6<\/a>), but must also refrain from practices that, while technically permitting browser engines, <strong>render their use impractical or commercially unviable<\/strong>.<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>The act also mandates choice screens for browsers among other items.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/15\/apples-browser-engine-ban-persists-even-under-the-dma\/\">Apple&rsquo;s Browser Engine Ban Persists, Even Under the DMA<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/18\/firefox-benefits-from-browser-choice-screens\/\">Firefox Benefits From Browser Choice Screens<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/17\/japan-passes-law-to-allow-app-marketplaces\/\">Japan Passes Law to Allow App Marketplaces<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/26\/dma-compliance-alternative-browser-engines\/\">DMA Compliance: Alternative Browser Engines<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marcus Mendes: Since 2020, Japan&rsquo;s Fair Trade Commission has investigated Apple and Google&rsquo;s dominance in the mobile market. This week, the watchdog published a series of new guidelines that the two companies must comply with, chief among them allowing third-party app stores.In a 119-page document issued this week, the Japan Fair Trade Commission established the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-08-08T19:14:08Z","apple_news_api_id":"aa1607b8-45b8-43a2-8a7a-60b498e617b3","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-08-08T19:14:08Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AqhYHuEW4Q6KKemC0mOYXsw","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2085,2542,31,2078,1714,209,2735],"class_list":["post-48836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-antitrust","tag-app-marketplaces","tag-ios","tag-ios-15","tag-japan","tag-legal","tag-web-browser"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48837,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48836\/revisions\/48837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}