Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Bipartisan Senate bill aims to increase mobile apps market competition, (Jun 25, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Apple | Public Knowledge
By Lynn Stanton, TR Daily
The Open App Markets Act would require app stores to allow app developers to tell consumers about lower prices.
Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.), Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), Mike Lee (R., Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), and Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) introduced a bill aimed at boosting competition in the mobile apps market by ensuring that app developers can tell consumers about lower prices available outside Apple, Inc., and Google LLC’s app stores and by opening the market to third-party app stores, among other things.
The Open App Markets Act would also protect “sideloading” of apps outside the app stores linked to the device’s operating system; opening the market to startup apps and alternative payment systems; enable developers’ access to consumer device features; give consumers “greater control over their devices”; prevent app stores “from disadvantaging developers”; and establishing safeguards “to preserve consumer privacy, security, and safety,” according to a press release from Sen. Blackburn’s office.
It would bar covered app stores from requiring developers to use an in-app payment system controlled by the app store.
The bill would apply to companies that have more than 50 million U.S. users on a monthly basis.
Sen. Blackburn said, “Big Tech giants have operated as unaccountable gatekeepers of the mobile app economy, forcing American consumers to use their app stores at the expense of innovative startups that threaten their bottom line.”
Sen. Blumenthal said, “Our bipartisan legislation will break tech giants’ ironclad grip on the app economy.”
The press release noted that startups “face serious challenges when Big Tech gatekeepers are able to prioritize their own apps to the disadvantage of others, make use of competitors’ confidential business information, and block developers from using features on a consumer’s phone.”
The bill is endorsed by, among others, Spotify, Epic Games, and Public Knowledge, according to the press release.
News: Antitrust