U.S. House Judiciary lawmakers on Friday introduced legislation meant to set rules for how companies like Apple and Google control their online app stores.
Margaret Harding McGill for Axios:
The bipartisan bill is the House companion to Senate legislation introduced earlier this week.
House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee ranking member Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) say the Open App Markets Act will allow app developers to tell consumers about lower prices and open up more competition for third-party app stores and payment services.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, by all means, let’s turn the Garden of Eden into a glorious combination of the streets of Detroit and Chicago. Makes tons of sense.
“Hey, let’s dramatically increase the potential for malicious code and behavior on Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV!”
“What a great idea!” exclaim these U.S. Congressmen.
We await the U.S. House bills that force Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation to allow third-party app stores with bated breath.
Spotify, Epic Games, etc.’s demand they should be able to advertise alternative deals within their iOS app is a practice that no store in the world allows.
The fact is that when Sony sells TVs in Best Buy, they’re not allowed to place placards next to each unit that say the same unit is cheaper at Target, along with QR codes that launch Amazon’s app offering the exact same TV at a lower price.
Once again, Spotify et al. want all the benefits of the App Store for free.
Of course, we’re all for Apple allowing app developers to inform users that the App Store isn’t their only shopping option, as long as Spotify, Epic Games or any other developer simply pay Apple a 15% – 30% advertising fee for each sale they make as a result of being offered the alternative payment option via Apple’s App Store. 😉
Apple deserves compensation from any developer using their store for distribution, advertising, etc.
Hopefully, Apple (and Google) lobbyists will be able to quash this mess of a bill with aplomb.
The “Open App Markets Act” is the House companion to a Senate bill that was introduced this week by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). The full text of the Senate bill can be found here.