The North Dakota Senate is embroiled in a heated dispute between Apple and iOS software developers over a bill that would make it illegal for device makers to use their app stores and payment systems.
The bill (PDF) has two chapters. First, it would be illegal for companies like Google and Apple to make their app stores the ‘exclusive way’ to distribute apps on their platforms. Second, it would prohibit providers from requiring third parties to use their digital transaction or in-app payment systems in their applications.
The proposed law applies to app stores for which there are gross sales vouchers to North Dakota Residents exceeds $ 10 million in a calendar year. It applies to a ‘common hardware’, including tablets and smartphones, but it excludes ‘special digital application distribution platforms’, such as game consoles, music players and ‘other Internet-connected equipment’. Thread the needle and then you sit with a pretty sturdy arrow pointing directly at Google and Apple’s mobile app platforms. (This may also apply to Mac OS and Windows application stores for laptops and computers, but the platforms are becoming less restrictive.)
“The purpose of the bill is to level the playing field for app developers in North Dakota and protect customers from devastating, monopolistic fees charged by big tech companies,” Republican Senate Kyle Davison told local reporters when he reported the bill, The Bismarck Tribune.
The targets
Google does allow users to go through the built-in Android app store to download apps, which is likely to make it clear as far as part of the account is concerned. However, Apple does not do this infamously, and it is faced by the manufacturers of several programs, including Telegram, with antitrust complaints about the restriction.
Even more threatening is the 30 percent cut in sales that Apple and Google are making because apps on their respective platforms have to use their own payment platforms. ProtonMail’s founder and CEO’s Apple’s cut last year ‘virtually does not distinguish from a protection rocket’. ProtonMail agrees with several other developers, such as Spotify, who have publicly complained that the fee is taxed on non-Apple software, making it harder to compete with Apple native apps because they are either a 30 percent fetched their revenue or passed on the cost to consumers and seem more expensive in comparison.
If you think it sounds familiar, you were right. The proposal is closely linked to the heated battle between Epic and Apple that is currently taking place in federal court.
It all happened previously now immediately …
Back in August, Epic Games, maker of Fortnite, has been at loggerheads with Apple and Google by launching an alternative in-game in-game payment system. Apple launched it within hours of the iOS app store, as predicted, and Epic immediately filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company in federal court. The case is still very much in progress.
Last fall, amid this dispute, Epic brought in 12 other companies to launch a lobbying group, the Coalition for App Fairness, to fight back against Apple. Spotify, Bandcamp and Protonmail, all of which have publicly used Apple for its App Store policies, were among the founders along with Epic. the group now has more than 45 member businesses.
According to the New York Times, the lobbyist who proposed the draft legislation is working on the state senator sponsoring it, on behalf of Epic Games and the Coalition.
North Dakota may be just one state with a low population (it has less than 1 million inhabitants), but it is not the only state where legislators want to act on their own against the big international technology companies. Arizona also currently has an extremely similar bill being considered in its state legislature.
In the absence of federal regulations, states are also intervening in other facets of the digital economy. Virginia became the second state last week, after California, to pass a comprehensive digital privacy law, and Maryland last week became the first in the state to impose taxes on digital advertising revenue.