A new bill in the North Dakota Senate could force Apple to allow iPhone owners to sideload apps and use alternative payment systems in the app. The wide-ranging project would prevent companies like Apple and Google from requiring developers to use only their app stores and payment systems.
As explained by The Bismarck Tribune (through The Verge), the bill establishes three restrictions for the so-called “digital application distribution platforms”. The language is clearly aimed directly at Apple and its various App Store policies. The project says that these platforms cannot:
- “Requiring a developer to use a digital application distribution platform or digital transaction platform as the exclusive way to distribute a digital product.”
- “Requiring a developer to use an in-app payment system as the exclusive way of accepting payment from a user to download a software application or purchase a digital or physical product through a software application.”
- “Retaliating a developer for choosing to use an alternative app store or in-app payment system.”
Apple has already testified against the project, with privacy software manager Erik Neuenschwander saying that this combination of restrictions “threatens to destroy the iPhone as you know it” and “undermine the privacy, security and performance that are integrated into the iPhone by design. “
Neuenschwander also added that the bill would “require” Apple to allow bad apps on the App Store, despite the fact that the company “works hard to keep them” out.
But what is important to keep in mind is that this is just a state bill and would only affect App Store business in North Dakota. That said, it can set precedents for other states to present similar bills – or it can serve as a basis for similar legislation at the federal level.
Apple vocal critic and Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson testified in favor of the project and wrote on Twitter that this represents the “first real and concrete legislative proposal that I saw and that really gives me hope that technology monopolies will not rule the world forever”.
Finally, Senator President Jerry Klein said during the hearing that there is still work to be done on the bill and no action will be taken yet.
FTC: We use affiliate links for cars that generate revenue. More.
Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more news from Apple: