Last year the UK declared that Apple and Google were a duopoly with “strategic market conditions” in the market of mobile platforms, subjecting them to special regulations. However, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will not regulate the app stores of Google and Apple as it does in the EU. However, the government plans to enforce it itself. digital market rules in a “pragmatic” way by accepting “commitments” from Apple and Google in areas such as app rankings, the CMA Office has partnered.

Google and Apple have agreed to work with the CMA to address concerns on the following matters: app review, app ranking, data usage and process interoperability. Effectively, regulators require tech giants to treat developers fairly, especially if they compete against Google and Apple’s own apps. However, the UK rules are more like proposals and “are not legally binding in any case,” former CMA director Tom Smith told the Financial Times.

This is in stark contrast to Europe’s Digital Markets Act, which forced Apple will make changes to open up iOS features and data to rivals, allow app installations from outside its Store and reduce fees collected on purchases.

That could change if companies fail to follow its steps, however. The CMA plans to examine metrics such as the number of apps approved or rejected, app review times and developer complaints received. New requirements can then be brought forward as deemed necessary. “For example, if we see that Apple is constantly declining interoperability requests without good justification … we can bring specific interoperability requirements. Non-compliance also means that we cannot consider commitments as a similar approach in (the) future.”

Google said a blog now that it “welcomes the opportunity to address the CMA’s concerns collaboratively.” Apple, meanwhile, seems to be happy with the deal as well. “The commitments announced today allow Apple to continue developing important privacy and security innovations for users and more opportunities for developers,” an Apple spokesperson said. Bloomberg.

The UK is likely to get a light touch on app store rules to avoid antagonizing the Trump administration. Earlier today, French President Emmanuel Macron predicted that the US could go after the EU in areas such as data privacy, digital taxation and the plan by several EU countries to ban children from social media. “The US, in the coming months – that’s for sure – will attack us with digital regulation,” Macron SAYS at a special summit yesterday.