Apple App Store, Google Play Store targeted by the Open App Markets Act

In the last chapter of the calculation in progress on Apple and Google’s strict app store practices, two senators on Wednesday introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at loosening the noose these companies have on the main application ecosystems.

the Open Application Markets Act, which is led by Meaning. Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn, is designed to crack down on some of the more sordid tactics that tech gamers use to run their respective app ecosystems, while giving users the power to download the apps they want, from within. app stores they want, without retaliation.

“For years, Apple and Google have crushed their competition and kept consumers in the dark, pocketing big deals while acting as supposedly benevolent stewards of this multi-billion dollar market,” Blumenthal Recount tthe Wall Street Journal. As he said, this bill is tailor-made to “break the foolproof grip of these tech giants. open up the app economy to new competitors and give mobile users more control over their own devices.

The antitrust issues facing these two companies, along with other tech giants like Facebook and Amazon, have reached a boiling point on Capitol Hill over the past year. We have seen lawmakers deploy bill after bill intended to target some of the most lucrative monopolies held by these companies: Amazon’s marketplace, Facebook’s set of platforms, and, of course, the respective Apple and Google app stores. Last month, three dozen state attorneys general perceived a new antitrust lawsuit against Google for Play Store fees imposed on app developers. Meanwhile, Apple is still in a heated legal battle with Epic Games on its own commissioned commissions, which can represent up to 30% of each in-app purchase made by users.

Blumenthal and Blackburn specifically target these fees. The bill would, for example, ban app stores from requiring developers to use their payment systems. It would also prevent app stores from retaliating against developers. who trying to implement their own payment systems, which is the exact scenario that started Epic from App Storn last summer.

On top of that, the bill would require devices to allow app downloads by default. Google allowed this practice for a while, but this month started taking action to restrict the post formats developers could use. Apple hardware, meanwhile, has never been loaded.-friendly – a choice to support the “privacy initiatives” built into the App Storn, thatin agreement with Apple CEO Tim Cook.

here is certain other practices prohibited by the Open App Markets Act: Apple, Google or any otherThe owner of the pp store would not be allowed to use a developer’s proprietary app information to develop their own competing product. They would also be prohibited from applying ranking algorithms that rank their own applications against those of their competitors. Users, meanwhile, should (finally) have a choice of which App Store they can use on their device, instead of being cataloged in Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store.

Like all bills, this new legislation still has to go through regulatory churning before it has any hope of being passed, and it could look like a very different set of rules when it finally is. But at this point, the antitrust action is going to come for these companies, whether they like it or not.