Apple recently thanked its lucky stars when North Dakota rejected a bill that would have forced the company to allow third-party payment processes for apps in the App Store. The purpose of the bill is to allow companies to bypass Apple’s 15% -30% commission fee (as Epic Games did in August, without permission) for all apps and transactions on the platform.
Suggestion For You:
Apple has always strictly filtered which apps are allowed in its store, in addition to the commission developers call “ highway robbery. ” If this bill passes, small businesses will have a much better chance of survival, especially during the pandemic. However, the victory in North Dakota was just a small fight, and Apple’s fight is far from over.
Not long after, Minnesota filed a similar bill, which Apple is also currently lobbying against. And now Apple has expanded its efforts to Arizona – which hadn’t even officially enacted the bill before Apple approached them with torches and pitchforks.
Apple and Google are well aware that if these accounts succeed, they will lose billions of dollars that their duopoly has guaranteed them to date. According to them, these bills are “ unconstitutional, ” and Regina Cobb (the Arizona state representative who introduced the bill) claims she has faced a non-stop attack from Apple and Google’s plethora of hired lobbyists over the past two weeks. as well as free market groups and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce.
Apple may be fighting these little battles, bill for bill, state for state, right now, but the decisive battle will come in May when the case between Epic Games and Apple goes to trial. If Minnesota and Arizona approve the bill, there is a chance that this (and the responses arising from it) could influence the court’s decision, but that’s not certain at this point. While much of the world hopes for a future with a freer market, the North Dakota Senate voted against the bill with a 36:11 skewed ratio – so nothing is certain, and Apple certainly won’t stop fighting with hand and foot. tooth to maintain its multi. -Billion dollar app revenue as they are reduced.