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A new bill in the North Dakota Senate could force Apple to allow iPhone owners to load apps aside and use alternate payment systems in the app. The sweeping bill would ban companies like Apple and Google from requiring developers to only use their app stores and payment systems.
As explained by The Bismarck Tribune (via The edge), the bill provides for three restrictions for so-called “digital application distribution platforms”. The language is clearly aimed directly at Apple and its various App Store policies. The bill says that these platforms cannot:
- “Require a developer to use a digital application distribution platform or a digital transaction platform as the exclusive mode of distributing a digital product.”
- “Require a developer to use an integrated payment system as the exclusive method of accepting payment from a user to download a software application or purchase a digital or physical product through a software application.”
- “Crack down on a developer who has chosen to use a different app store or an integrated payment system.”
Apple has already testified against the bill, with privacy software chief Erik Neuenschwander saying such a combination of restrictions “threatens to destroy the iPhone as you know it” and “undermines privacy, security, safety. and the performance built into the iPhone by design. “
Neuenschwander also added that the bill “would force” Apple to allow bad apps in the App Store, despite the company “working hard to prevent them.”
But what’s important to keep in mind is that this is only a government bill and would only affect App Store operations in Dakota. North. That being said, it could set a precedent for other states to come up with similar bills – or it could serve as a backbone for similar legislation at the federal level.
Apple voice critic and Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson testified in support of the bill and written on twitter that this is the “first real and concrete legislative proposal that I have seen and which in fact gives me hope that technology monopolies will not rule the world forever.”
Ultimately, Senate Speaker Senator Jerry Klein said during the hearing that there was still work to be done on the bill and no action would be taken yet.
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