A bipartisan group of lawmakers is considering the App Store Freedom Act (ASFA), which would impose sweeping restrictions on Apple’s and Google’s app stores. As Jack Nicastro argues in Reason, despite its name, the bill would impede innovation and weaken U.S. technological leadership.
ASFA would require Apple and Google to allow users to download third-party app stores and apps and permit developers to direct users to outside payment processors. It would also grant developers equal access to platform features and forbid the two firms from using nonpublic business information about apps to compete.
As Nicastro explains, ASFA would depart sharply from existing U.S. antitrust law, particularly the Sherman Act. Instead, the bill closely resembles the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which other countries are beginning to emulate. Adopting ASFA would weaken Washington’s ability to challenge similar discriminatory regulations abroad.
The bill also seeks to solve a largely nonexistent problem. Nicastro notes that most apps are free, Apple collects no commission on the overwhelming majority of App Store billings, and nearly all Play Store developers qualify for reduced fees. Yet ASFA would allow large developers to free ride off Apple’s and Google’s mobile platform investments, weakening incentives to innovate.
Nicastro argues that Congress should reject the bill rather than import a hostile antitrust framework used abroad to harm American technological leadership and competitiveness.
Read the full commentary in Reason.
