taya777 States Are Right to Rebel Against Big Tech

As Congress continues its interrogation of monopolistic practices of technology companies, states are getting into the game. Among the first targets on their list are Apple and Googletaya777, which together command 100 percent of the market for smartphone operating systems. New bills introduced in several states would threaten the companies’ dominance and represent an opportunity for state leaders to put fairness in commerce at the center of governance.

All apps that iPhone users download pass through Apple’s app store, because Apple doesn’t allow alternative marketplaces. Google uses its own store, which is called Google Play and is preinstalled on most Android phones, to give preference to its own apps over similar apps from competitors. While Google does allow alternative app stores, users must download them.

Both companies retain as much as 30 percent of the money consumers pay both for apps and for the purchases they make within those apps. (Credit card networks typically charge around 3 percent in transaction fees.) Apple made $72 billion last year from app store fees alone, while Google Play earned Google $39 billion, according to a research company called Sensor Tower. This week Google said it would reduce its commission for some app store sales. Both companies are targets of American and European inquiries into monopolies in the technology market.

Last fall Epic Games, the maker of the popular video game Fortnite, sued Apple after trying unsuccessfully to wrest control of consumer payments by adding its own direct payment system to Fortnite. Apple responded by removing the game from its app store, and a trial is scheduled to begin in May.

And now states are taking on the issue of payments for mobile phone software. Bills recently introduced in more than a half-dozen states, including Arizona, New York, Illinois and Georgia, would prevent Apple and Google from forcing developers to use the platforms’ payment systems. Some of the bills have been backed by the Coalition for App Fairness, a nonprofit organization that opposes app store fees and was founded by technology companies including Epic Games and Spotify. With these bills, state lawmakers are directly challenging the market power of big tech, attempting to address through policy what could take years to achieve through antitrust cases.

Arizona’s House of Representatives this month passed a bill that prevents providers of digital platforms from compelling consumers and software developers based in the state to use those platforms’ payment systems. The measure was supported almost entirely by Republicans. Most of the state’s Democrats sided with Apple and libertarians at Americans for Prosperity and the Goldwater Institute in opposing the bill, arguing that the state should not be involved in disputes between private businesses and that federal enforcers, not states, should regulate tech markets.

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