The bipartisan House duo behind a bill that would take on Apple’s and Google’s smartphone app stores is ramping up their push to get support for the measure on Thursday.
The effort from Reps. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) comes as the House Energy and Commerce Committee moves to finalize a package of bills aimed at protecting kids online — a potential vehicle for the two lawmakers’ legislation.
Cammack and Trahan are sending a “Dear Colleague” to fellow House members seeking more co-sponsors for their App Store Freedom Act, and noting the upcoming panel’s kids safety push.
Here’s their pitch on the “control” that Apple and Google exercise over consumers’ access to smartphone apps:
“Their dominance is deeply troubling for competition. It’s inconsistent with free market principles, and it’s bad for consumers. But worst of all, Apple’s and Google’s gatekeeper authority directly harms children.”
The lawmakers’ plea for more co-sponsors comes amid some momentum. Three lawmakers — Reps. Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) and James Comer (R-Ky.) — have already signed on this week.
The bill focuses on competition and represents a rare effort to regulate Apple in particular. It would require allowing users to hide Apple and Google default apps in favor of rivals’ offerings, or to use third-party app stores.
Cammack and Trahan said in the letter, however, that the two Big Tech companies’ control gets in the way of “a kids-first app store… built from the ground up to protect kids, replete with a curated set of apps, tailored review practices run by experts in child safety, and feature-rich parental controls.”
We’ll note that Apple and Google have been turning up parental controls, and Apple has expanded the details on its app age ratings. Both companies argue they use their app stores to screen out dangerous apps, while third-party app stores would let malicious apps in.
We recently scooped that outside advocates from both sides of the political spectrum have been urging House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) to wrap the app store bill into the kids package.
In addition, the Coalition for App Fairness, a trade group that’s been a key force pushing the bill, announced on Tuesday it had added Elon Musk’s social media app X to its membership.
