The U.K.’s main competition watchdog said today that Google LLC and Apple Inc. have a “vice-like grip” on the mobile market, something that needs to be changed soon.

The Competition and Markets Authority or CMA said both companies are stifling any form of competition in the market, which in the end likely increases costs for consumers. The companies were accused of creating their own ecosystems that trap consumers within. Considering 99.45% of phones in the country run either Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android, the watchdog might have a point.

Earlier this year, the CMA announced that it was starting an investigation into Google and Apple’s dominance in the mobile market. “Apple and Google control the major gateways through which people download apps or browse the web on their mobiles – whether they want to shop, play games, stream music or watch TV,” Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, said in June. “We’re looking into whether this could be creating problems for consumers and the businesses that want to reach people through their phones.”

Coscelli has now said that the duopoly does in fact wed consumers to each company’s products once they buy a phone running one of the operating systems. She said today that the companies have a “vice-like grip over how we use mobile phones and we’re concerned that it’s causing millions of people across the U.K. to lose out.”

She added that the investigation found that once consumers have bought a phone with one of the OSes, the companies then “tilt the playing field” so that consumers use pre-installed apps. She said this essentially lets the companies block out competition, which in the end is unfair to competitors and consumers.

“It can be easy to forget that they set all the rules too – from determining which apps are available on their app stores, to making it difficult for us to switch to alternative browsers on our phones,” she said. “This control can limit innovation and choice, and lead to higher prices – none of which is good news for users.”

Her solution is to use the U.K.’s new enforcer in town, the Digital Markets Unit or DMU, to do its job and crack down on the companies and their monopolies. Once the DMA is given regulatory powers, which should happen soon, it will be charged with making sure the companies adhere to practices concerning “fair trading, trust and transparency.”

“Any intervention must tackle the firms’ substantial market power across the key areas of operating systems, app stores, and browsers,” Coscelli said. “We think that the best way to do this is through the Digital Markets Unit when it receives powers from government.”

Photo: sling@flickr/Flickr