North Dakota lawmakers jump into Apple / Epic fight with new bill on the app store

The North Dakota State Senate is embarking on a simmering feud between Apple and iOS software developers over a bill that would ban device makers from requiring the use of their app stores and apps. their payment systems.

The bill (PDF) has two main components. First, it would be illegal for companies such as Google and Apple to use their app stores as the “exclusive medium” to distribute apps on their platforms. Second, it would prohibit these providers from requiring third parties to use their digital transaction or payment systems integrated into their applications.

The bill applies to app stores for which gross revenue to residents of North Dakota exceed $ 10 million per calendar year. It applies to all “general purpose hardware”, including tablets and smartphones, but it explicitly excludes “special purpose digital application distribution platforms” such as game consoles, video players. music and “other special purpose devices connected to the Internet”. Thread that needle and you end up with a pretty firm arrow pointing straight at the mobile application platforms of Google and Apple. (This could also apply to Mac OS and Windows app stores for laptops and desktops, but those platforms are already less restrictive.)

“The purpose of the bill is to level the playing field for app developers in North Dakota and to protect customers from the devastating and monopolistic fees imposed by big tech companies,” the Republican Senator said. Kyle Davison to local reporters when he introduced the bill. Bismarck Tribune reports.

The targets

Google is allowing users to shop around the built-in Android app store to load apps, which would likely highlight this when it comes to this part of the bill. Apple, however, does not, and faces antitrust complaints about the restriction from makers of several apps, including Telegram.

Even more threatened is the 30% reduction in sales Apple and Google achieve by requiring apps on their respective platforms to use their own payment platforms. Last year, the founder and CEO of ProtonMail called Apple’s cut “virtually indistinguishable from a protective racquet.” ProtonMail in this area is in line with several other developers, such as Spotify, who have publicly complained that the fee amounts to a tax on non-Apple software, making it harder to compete with native Apple applications because they must either take a 30% impact on their income or pass the costs on to consumers and appear more expensive in comparison.

If you think this sounds familiar to you, you are right. The proposal is closely tied to the bitter fight between Epic and Apple currently unfolding in federal court.

It all happened before at present …

Back in August, Epic Games, creator of Fortnite, chose a fight with Apple and Google by launching an alternative payment system for in-game purchases. As expected, Apple booted it up from the iOS App Store within hours, and Epic immediately filed for a antitrust complaint against the company in federal court. This case is still ongoing at this time.

Last fall, in the midst of this dispute, Epic called on 12 other companies to launch a lobby group, the Coalition for App Fairness, to fight Apple. Spotify, Bandcamp, and Protonmail, all of which have publicly supported Apple for its App Store policies, were among the founders, alongside Epic; the group now has more than 45 member companies.

According to the New York Times, the lobbyist who proposed the bill to the sponsoring state senator worked on behalf of the Epic Games and the Coalition.

North Dakota may be just one state with a small population (it has less than a million people), but it’s not the only state where lawmakers are considering acting alone against the large international technology companies. Arizona also has an extremely similar bill under consideration in its state legislature at the moment.

In the absence of federal regulation, states also act on other aspects of the digital economy. Virginia last week became the second state, after California, to pass a comprehensive digital privacy law, and Maryland last week became the first state in the country to impose a tax on digital advertising revenue.