Apple steps up US-wide lobbying at state level ahead of Arizona bill vote
States are debating policies that could force changes to the App Store, and Apple is increasing its lobbying efforts to prevent it.
App Store
Following Arizona's narrowly passing a bill that would mean changes to Apple's App Store and Google's equivalent, other states are looking to enact similar measures. Broadly, they would stop Apple and Google from enforcing in-app payment systems, and from mandating that app developers pay a 30% or 15% cut.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple's response has been to increase its lobbying efforts in every state concerned.
Republican state representative Regina Cobb, who is chief sponsor of Arizona's proposed bill, said that Apple and Google have both lobbied heavily against it. She says the bill concerns "consumer protection and transparency," and added that a final vote could be held within the next month.
Reportedly, Apple has disclosed $6.7 million in lobbying spending, although this is down from its previous high of $7.4 million in 2019.
Apple declined to comment on the specifics of its lobbying, but a spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that Apple intends to protect its App Store policies.
"[We] created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place for users to download the apps they love and a great business opportunity for developers," said the Apple spokesperson. "This legislation threatens to break that very successful model and undermine the strong protections we've put in place for customers."
If Arizona's bill, or any state's equivalent, passes into law, it would mean that developers in the region could bypass Apple's and Google's payment systems. It's by no means certain that such bills will pass, though, as North Dakota recently rejected one.
App Store
Following Arizona's narrowly passing a bill that would mean changes to Apple's App Store and Google's equivalent, other states are looking to enact similar measures. Broadly, they would stop Apple and Google from enforcing in-app payment systems, and from mandating that app developers pay a 30% or 15% cut.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple's response has been to increase its lobbying efforts in every state concerned.
Republican state representative Regina Cobb, who is chief sponsor of Arizona's proposed bill, said that Apple and Google have both lobbied heavily against it. She says the bill concerns "consumer protection and transparency," and added that a final vote could be held within the next month.
Reportedly, Apple has disclosed $6.7 million in lobbying spending, although this is down from its previous high of $7.4 million in 2019.
Apple declined to comment on the specifics of its lobbying, but a spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that Apple intends to protect its App Store policies.
"[We] created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place for users to download the apps they love and a great business opportunity for developers," said the Apple spokesperson. "This legislation threatens to break that very successful model and undermine the strong protections we've put in place for customers."
If Arizona's bill, or any state's equivalent, passes into law, it would mean that developers in the region could bypass Apple's and Google's payment systems. It's by no means certain that such bills will pass, though, as North Dakota recently rejected one.
Comments
Thanks for the laugh.
it would allow for the likes of Valve, GOG, Epic, and other game stores to offer things currently impossible on the App Store... cross-buy compatibility.
People aren’t willing to pay $60 for a “mobile” game regardless of how much content is in them, but if they can pay $60 and they get a game that runs on Windows, iOS, and Mac, that changes the value proposition completely
There’s also apps that have been rejected by Apple, perfectly legitimate apps like Xcloud, Stadia, GeForce Now, Kodi, and Retroarch just to name a few.
There’s a reason AltStore is becoming more popular, and it isn’t because of Apple’s insistence on keeping app distribution locked down.
From the developer perspective. Apple and Google stores take to much percentage of the consumers purchase, does not share user data and that’s not fair. (Help me if I missed an argument.)