A bipartisan bill that would regulate the management of Apple’s and Google’s mobile app stores and enable greater competition on the platforms passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
The committee voted to advance the Open App Markets Act 21-1, with only Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas voting no.
The bill, which will head to the Senate floor where it is expected to pass in the coming months, would force Google and Apple to give up control over their app stores by requiring them to house apps from other marketplaces, allow apps to use alternative payment systems and offer different price points elsewhere, and enable app developers to reach their users directly for legitimate business purposes.
The advancement of the bill — along with another similar anti-Big Tech bill from earlier this month, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act — shows broad support in Congress to rein in the tech giants.
“The Open App Markets Act will take power away from Big Tech and give it to the free market,” said Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn on Twitter after the bill’s passage on Thursday. “This bill will let people download apps directly from outside companies rather than being forced to go through official app stores.”
BREAKING UP BIG TECH WOULD ADDRESS CONSERVATIVE FEARS OF BIAS, TOP DEMOCRAT SAYS
Nearly 90% of app developers favor legislation promoting a level playing field in the app marketplace, according to a recent survey by Coalition for App Fairness, a nonprofit organization that advocates for fair competition on app stores.
Google and Apple are strongly opposed to the legislation because they say it will ruin their business models and hurt consumers.
“A D.C. Beltway bubble exists when it comes to the app store and self-preferencing bills that are mostly just important to smaller companies and rivals,” said Adam Kovacevich, CEO of Chamber of Progress, an advocacy group backed by Big Tech companies such as Apple, Facebook, and Google. “There’s no evidence of broad support among voters for the bill and what the consumer benefits will be versus the benefits accrued by smaller companies who compete with Big Tech, such as Spotify, Match, and Epic.”
Conservatives in support of the bill say the Big Tech companies have created a false narrative to create opposition to the bill.
“This bipartisan movement proves that no matter how much Big Tech lobbies behind closed doors, they will not succeed,” said Mike Davis, president of the conservative advocacy group the Internet Accountability Project.
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“Big Tech’s dishonest, last-minute attempt to paint this bill as a danger to U.S. national security is a transparent effort to mislead the committee and is especially laughable considering Google’s and Apple’s subservience to American adversaries, including the genocidal communist Chinese government,” Davis added.
