Lobbying group backed by Apple and Google rails against Open App Markets Act

A relatively new lobbying group backed by tech giants including Apple and Google is taking a stand against proposed legislation that targets the outsized market power enjoyed by dominant app stores.

On Wednesday, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Amy Klobuchar and Marsha Blackburn introduced the Open App Markets Act, a bill that in part calls on tech companies like Apple and Google to be more open to third-party app stores and sideloading.

The legislation further takes issue with mandates that require developers to use first-party payment systems, as Apple does with its App Store, punishment of apps that present different pricing structures on outside platforms and leveraging private data to compete with third-party apps. Preinstalled apps and private APIs are also mentioned in the bill.

In response, a lobbying group called the Chamber of Progress said the proposed legislation "is a finger in the eye of anyone who bought an iPhone or Android because the phones and their app stores are safe, reliable, and easy to use," reports ArsTechnica.

"I don't see any consumers marching in Washington demanding that Congress make their smartphones dumber. And Congress has better things to do than intervene in a multi-million dollar dispute between businesses," said Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the Chamber of Progress.

Kovacevich's statement closely aligns with Apple and Google's stance on the matter.

"Since our founding, we've always put our users at the center of everything we do, and the App Store is the cornerstone of our work to connect developers and customers in a way that is safe and trustworthy," an Apple spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC on Wednesday. "At Apple, our focus is on maintaining an App Store where people can have confidence that every app must meet our rigorous guidelines and their privacy and security is protected."

The Chamber of Progress, which counts Amazon, Facebook and Twitter as funding members, in June lobbied against a package of antitrust bills designed in part to break up Big Tech platforms. That slate of legislation also scrutinizes app store management with one bill focusing on "self-preferencing" and non-discrimination issues.

Along with government pressure, Apple is facing a legal challenge from Epic Games. The developer claims Apple holds a monopoly and is pushing for the adoption of third-party payment systems and app stores on iOS.

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46 Comments

dantheman827 9 Years · 118 comments

About 3 years ago

If you're in the US, one thing you can do that might help is to contact your senators and ask them to co-sponsor this bill, with any luck they might just listen to their constituents.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/s2710/comment

rob53 13 Years · 3312 comments

lmasanti said:

Disclaimer: I'm born and live in Argentina and I am neither a US citizen not live there.
(But I use an iPhone.)

Just a question: Would it be possible that the FCC/lawmakes/etc. made a consult to users —like the one on broadband—.
1— The telcos will send you a message to go to some site with your browser.
2— When you enter there, your phone number will be used ONLY to avoid that you vote more than once.
3— Depending in your operating system you'll be asked if you want to have —by example— ‘alternative app stores in iOS,’ and so on.
4— Other questions could be about companies tracking your behaviour.

Maybe it could be done more or less compulsory.

Lawmakers say the want to ‘protect customers.’ Why don't ask customers themselves?

(Well, maybe lawmakers lost votes.)

Great idea. It would be nice if our Congress actually asked users what they want instead of simply telling us what we can have. I don’t remember the FCC asking any normal citizen about broadband. Problem here, and probably in Argentina, is that internet companies pay politicians to do what they want, which isn’t always what customers want.

I live in a smaller town where the City Council actually talked to us asking if we wanted a city operated fiber internet. Enough people said yes so they asked if they should use an established ISP or not have one. We spoke, they listened and we have a connection to the internet without paying extra for an ISP (Comcast, etc). This can work for app stores but only if none of the people in power are being paid off by competing businesses

JohnDinEU 3 Years · 14 comments

Apple (and Google) are way too strong for anyone’s liking, incl the App Store. I remember the old days where Steve was on every platform to complain about, mostly, Microsoft. These days it’s Tim’s shop that stops every competition and we the consumers are paying for it (sometimes with our lives). Of course there need to more places to get Apps, or like in the old days, download directly from a website. The argument that Apple keeps us safe is since two weeks out of the window anyway because Journo’s and political activists were killed because Apple was sleeping at the wheel.

dee_dee 7 Years · 130 comments

I’m a pretty big Apple fan, but when someone pays $1000 + for a phone, they deserve the right to do what they want with it. I will still use the App Store, and I’m sure lots still will. But if someone wants to side load god knows what and is fine with the risk then go right ahead.

sflocal 16 Years · 6138 comments

JohnDinEU said:

Apple (and Google) are way too strong for anyone’s liking, incl the App Store. I remember the old days where Steve was on every platform to complain about, mostly, Microsoft. These days it’s Tim’s shop that stops every competition and we the consumers are paying for it (sometimes with our lives). Of course there need to more places to get Apps, or like in the old days, download directly from a website. The argument that Apple keeps us safe is since two weeks out of the window anyway because Journo’s and political activists were killed because Apple was sleeping at the wheel.

First post and all you do is spew nonsense. Go troll elsewhere, or at least try doing a better job than doing some kind of revisionist history.

dee_dee said:

I’m a pretty big Apple fan, but when someone pays $1000 + for a phone, they deserve the right to do what they want with it. I will still use the App Store, and I’m sure lots still will. But if someone wants to side load god knows what and is fine with the risk then go right ahead.

You already can. It's called "Jailbreaking". Apple has no obligation to make it easy to do it. If you side-load a Trojan-infected application and it bricks your iPhone, I guarantee the first thing you're going to do is play stupid and walk to an Apple store and pretend that it "just stopped working". I lost count of how many news articles came out back in the day about some severe iPhone malware and criticizing Apple's "security", only to read in the fine print that it was a jailbroken iPhone.

Even Cydia is barely the hanging on since there is little people realized there is little to no need to jailbreak anymore.