The North Dakota Senate this week introduced a new bill that would prevent Apple and Google from requiring developers to use their respective app stores and payment methods, paving the way for alternative app store options, reports The Bismarck Tribune (through The Verge)
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According to Senator Kyle Davison, who presented Senate Bill 2333 yesterday, the legislation was designed to “level the playing field” for app developers in North Dakota and protect customers from “devastating monopoly fees imposed by major insurance companies. technology “, which refer to the cut that Apple and Google take from developers.
Specifically, the project would prevent Apple from requiring a developer to use a digital application distribution platform as the exclusive way to distribute a digital product, and would prevent the company from requiring developers to use in-app purchases as the exclusive mode of acceptance. payment method. There is also a wording that prevents Apple from retaliating against developers who choose alternative methods of distribution and payment.
Apple’s chief privacy engineer, Erik Neuenschwander, spoke out against the project, saying it “threatens to destroy the iPhone as you know it” by demanding changes that “would damage the privacy, security and performance” of the “iPhone”.
Neuenschwander said that Apple “works hard” to keep bad apps from the App Store, and the North Dakota bill “requires us to let them in.”
Apple does not allow apps to be installed on iOS devices outside the App Store and there are no alternative app store options available. Apple reviews each application that is made available for download by its customers, something that would not happen with a third-party app store option.
Apple also does not allow application developers to accept payments using methods other than in-app purchase, except in certain situations, a policy that led to Apple’s legal fight with Epic Games. PicEpic Games added an alternative payment method to Fortnite last year, prompting the app to be banned from the App Store.
Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson, who was also involved in a legal fight with Apple over the “HEY” email app last year, testified in favor of the SB 2333 and said it gives him hope that ” technology monopolies are not going to rule the world forever. “
North Dakota’s SB 2333 is the first real, concrete legislative proposal I have seen that really gives me hope that technology monopolies will not rule the world forever. Fargo or Bismarck seem like wonderful places to settle under a shield against abuse 😂😍 – DHH (@dhh) February 9, 2021
In 2020, Apple faced a U.S. antitrust investigation into App Store fees and policies, which resulted in a 450-page report calling for new antitrust laws focusing on promoting fair competition in digital markets, strengthening laws related to mergers and monopolization and restoring vigorous supervision and enforcement of antitrust law.
No federal legislation has yet been introduced, and the North Dakota Senate committee has not taken action on the bill. Senator Jerry Klein said that “there are still some considerations to be made” regarding the bill.