New antitrust law: will the App Store lose its monopoly?

A new project ofantitrust lawcould be talked about in the coming weeks. Indeed, senators Richard Blumenthal, Marsha Blackburn and Amy Klobuchar have just presented a text targeting the App Store and Google's Play Store. “The Open App Markets Act”, as it is called, aims to put in place “fair, clear and enforceable rules” in order to let competition express itself without constraints.

For the three senators, Apple and Google have “absolute control” of the two main operating systems and their application stores, which gives them the ability to dictate market conditions, to the detriment of consumers and competition. .

What does the bill say?

In the bill presented by the senators, Apple would no longer be able to require developers to use the App Store, and Apple will have to let third-party applications develop. In addition, the Cupertino company will have to provide means“easily accessible”for users to use solutions other than the App Store.

Another part of the billplans to prevent Apple from favoring its own applications in an “unreasonable” way.

Apple's defense

For its part, Apple vehemently defends that the App Store exists for good reasons. The goal is to defend users, to provide a reliable and secure app store that can be used with confidence. In a press release, Apple also recalls that the App Store today concerns more than 2.1 million direct and indirect jobs in Uncle Sam's country.

“At Apple, we are focused on maintaining an App Store where people can feel confident that every app must meet our rigorous guidelines”, explains Apple, which positions itself as a defender of individual freedoms and consumer rights.

Today, the question of the monopoly of the App Store and the Play Store on Android is a hot topic. Many politicians have taken sides against the two large Californian firms which exercise their laws on their own devices, to the detriment of competition which they consider" just ". If this bill presented by three senators is still far from being successful,Legislative progress moves in the direction of opening up application stores to competition.