U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers have introduced a new bill that targets the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, coming just a few days after the Senate introduced a similar bill.
Reuters reports that the bipartisan House bill, introduced by Republican Rep. Ken Buck and Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson on Friday, would ban tech firms from requiring developers to use first-party payment systems or distribution methods.
Buck’s office said that U.S. consumers spent nearly $33 billion on mobile app stores in 2020 and downloaded nearly 13.4 billion apps.
“For far too long, companies like Google and Apple have had a stranglehold on app developers who are forced to take whatever terms these monopolists set in order to reach their customers,” Rep. Buck told Reuters.
The legislation is a companion to a similar measure introduced in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. Both bills are called the “Open App Markets Act.”
The U.S. House earlier this year also introduced a sweeping antitrust package that could bar tech companies from giving preferential treatment to their own products over those of third-party products hosted on the same platform.
Both Apple and Google’s App Stores have come under close scrutiny the last few years, as developers like Epic Games have complained loud and long about the 30% commission that both stores take on app purchases and in-app purchases.
