Fortnite maker Epic is closer to winning its battle with Apple and Google.
CNET
Amid Apple and Google’s legal battle with Fortnite producer Epic Games on the future of how their app stores work, Arizona lawmakers advanced Wednesday’s proposed rules that could improve the debate and change how apps work on iPhones and devices with Android devices.
The state bill, if passed and signed into law, requires app store operators such as Apple and Google to relax their rules on payment processing, a hotly debated topic between the technology giants and the major developers making popular apps on their platforms.
Instead, companies in Arizona that compile more than 1 million downloads a year can choose alternative payment systems when users sign up for a subscription or buy a digital item like a new look for their character or more trying to make a puzzle. Apple and Google are currently requiring developers to use their payment processing services, which charge commissions up to 30%, according to Epic’s monopolistic twin lawsuits against companies.
Lawmakers are increasingly investigating how Apple and Google operate their respective app stores.
Angela Lang / CNET
The new law, which only applies to companies in Arizona, must still pass the Arizona state legislature and be signed by Gov. Doug Ducey before it becomes law.
The Coalition for App Fairness, which supports the bill, said in a statement that it would “encourage business innovation in Arizona and protect consumer choice” if passed.
Epic did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple and Google declined to comment. Apple has pointed to previous evidence, while Google has pointed to its previous statements about how its products help businesses.
Apple has argued that commissions help pay for the further development and operation of its app stores and iOS software that powers the iPhone and iPad.
Whether the law goes into effect or not, this is the latest way states in the technology industry are conducting policy and legal debates. Instead of waiting for federal legislation or new regulations, states are considering a growing set of rules about whether the technology industry with privacy, environmental issues and now also finances is adopting it.
Illinois has one of the strictest face recognition laws in the country and contributed to it last month one of the largest legal actions in history, with a payout of $ 650 million from Facebook. The state of Washington in 2018 was the first in the country to adopt net neutrality laws, a few months after the Federal Communications Commission dismissed them. Voters in Massachusetts passed one of the nation’s first rights to repairs laws in 2020, which had to force car businesses gives customers access to vehicle data. And now Arizona is also considering its bill.
For large technology companies, this is another way they are facing increasing efforts to harness them. After decades of little supervision, tech companies are being forced to defend their actions – or lack thereof – over how they manage their social networks. , control access to their devices or handle competition. And in many cases, these growing calls for technological regulation are something both major parties in the country agree. President Joe Biden even this week expressed support for association efforts at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama.
“Companies that used to be scrappy, underdog enterprises that challenged the status quo have become the kind of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad departments,” the U.S. legal committee said in a statement last year. report of 449 pages written. . “While these companies have brought clear benefits to society, the dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google has come at a price.”
It is also a sign that regardless of legal battles that tech companies are battling over antitrust complaints, the issues themselves will not go away when the lawsuits die.
In Arizona, the bill still has barriers to negotiation before it becomes law, but lawmakers have made it clear that more regulations are likely to follow.
“The status quo is weakening Arizonans, forcing us to pay inflated prices. This has been let down by entrepreneurs being forced to jump through rings to simply get products from their customers. Monopolies – Apple and Google , “writes Arizona House Reps. Regina Cobb and Leo Biasiucci in an opinion piece published by the Arizona Capitol Times last month. “While DC is on its hands, we are now taking action to challenge Big Tech’s monopoly.”