Legislation recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would promote competition and protect consumers and developers in the mobile app marketplace.
The App Store Freedom Act would prohibit certain anticompetitive practices by requiring app store operators with more than 100 million U.S. users to allow users to remove or hide pre-installed apps, install apps or app stores outside of the dominant platform, and set third-party apps or app stores as default. Companies would be required to provide developers equal access to interfaces, features, and development tools without cost or discrimination. App stores would be prohibited from forcing developers to use a company’s in-app payment system, imposing pricing parity requirements, or punishing developers for distributing their apps elsewhere.
“We must continue to hold Big Tech accountable and promote competition that allows all players to enter the field. For too long, consumers and developers have borne the brunt of anti-competitive practices on major app store marketplaces,” U.S. Rep. Cammack (R-FL), who introduced the bill, said. “Dominant app stores have controlled customer data and forced consumers to use the marketplaces’ own merchant services, instead of the native, in-app offerings provided by the applications and developers themselves. The results are higher prices and limited selections for consumers and anti-competitive practices for developers that have stifled innovation.”