Britain on Wednesday told Apple and Google to be fairer in how they distribute apps on their mobile platforms, setting out possible interventions as it plans to designate the U.S. tech companies with strategic market status over their duopoly.

The United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority is pushing the two operating system providers to make competition more open for other developers.

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced on Wednesday a proposal that would give Apple’s and Google’s mobile platforms “strategic market status” — a designation that allows the regulator to create rules that could change how their app stores operate and how their mobile software works.