Information: Japan Enacts Regulatory Law to target Apple and Google the Smartphone Market.

Japan is the newest country to adopt an act that will target firms like Apple Inc. as well as Google LLC from limiting third-party companies that want to sell and distribute their own software for Google and Apple devices.

According to Kyodo News, "The law will prohibit the developers of Apple's iOS and Google's Android smartphones operating systems including apps, merchants and payment systems from preventing the sales of apps and services that directly compete against the native platforms." This is in order to keep the providers of these platforms from "gatekeeping" and, in addition, impose greater competition between their own apps as well as other applications on the platforms.

The current law against monopolies in Japan provides fines of six percent of the revenues earned from anticompetitive practices. However, penalties in this new particular law amount to 20% on the revenues made from services in violation of this law. They will rise by 30% if problem methods aren't stopped.

The law will become effective by the end of 2025 and, as Kyodo News points out is similar to one of the recently released EU regulations (presumably one from the European Union's Digital Markets Act).

Kyodo News also reports that both Apple as well as Google made announcements regarding their ongoing participation with Japanese regulators.

A prior article by Kyodo News regarding the regulation having been first approved by Japan's Cabinet said that the Cabinet was a vote to approve the rule as "a step to fight the duopoly monopoly imposed by the industry's top executives Apple Inc. and Google LLC," and that this regulation shows the Japanese government's desire to align with the EU when it comes to the enactment of rules "of Big Tech firms such as Apple, Google and Amazon.com Inc., which have the ability to exert an enormous influence over the digital service across the globe."

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