Unlikely Allies: Marsha Blackburn and Amy Klobuchar Team Up on Bill to Bust Apple and Google

Aleksandar Nakic/Getty Images

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) unveiled legislation on Wednesday that would crack the monopoly Apple and Google have fought to maintain over payments sent to companies that use their app stores.

The unlikely pair was joined by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in introducing the Open App Markets Act, which would, in part, prohibit the tech giants from forcing developers to use their payment systems for in-app purchases. It would also prohibit the companies from building products to compete with developers who use their services.

“For years, Apple and Google have squashed competitors and kept consumers in the dark—pocketing hefty windfalls while acting as supposedly benevolent gatekeepers of this multi-billion dollar market,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “This bipartisan bill will help break these tech giants’ ironclad grip, open the app economy to new competitors, and give mobile users more control over their own devices.”

The legislation comes after the tech giants spent years battling to maintain their stranglehold on payment processing in the face of lawsuits and antitrust complaints from companies such as Spotify and Fortnite creator Epic Games. The European Commission in April issued a statement of objections against Apple in April for demanding Spotify fork over a commission of 15 to 30 percent on payments from its users, while Epic Games took Apple to court in the United States last year for removing Fortnite from its store when the company implemented its own payment system. Forty state attorneys general

“Since our founding, we’ve always put our users at the center of everything we do, and the App Store is the cornerstone of our work to connect developers and customers in a way that is safe and trustworthy,” an Apple spokesman said in a statement about the legislation. “The result has been an unprecedented engine of economic growth and innovation, one that now supports more than 2.1 million jobs across all 50 states. At Apple, our focus is on maintaining an App Store where people can have confidence that every app must meet our rigorous guidelines and their privacy and security is protected.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!