The global software developer advocate sees little benefit for developers, and potential harm, in Congress’ “protective” proposal.
Washington D.C., August 25th, 2021 – The Developers Alliance has released an assessment of the Open App Markets Act, introduced last week by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). The Open App Markets Act, S.2710 is intended to “promote competition and reduce gatekeeper power in the app economy, increase choice, improve quality, and reduce costs for consumers.” In their assessment, however, Developers Alliance finds that the proposal focuses on reducing gatekeeper power at the expense of its other objectives.
Key Findings
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Developers do not support reducing app store competition by mandating a common business model.
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Ecosystem owners must not be punished or disincentivized for attempting to safeguard consumers.
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We welcome measures that promote transparency and encourage greater access to OS innovations
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Developers cannot support the bill without a clear statement of federal preemption.
The following quotes can be attributed to the Developers Alliance:
”The developer community has strong opinions on Congress regulating the app market. Despite the Senator’s claims, the majority of developers aren’t asking for government ‘help’, and don’t support this intervention. While we welcome more transparent and better-balanced relationships between developers and app store owners, it must not come at the expense of a stable and thriving digital economy. This proposal risks the destruction of the 3rd party app market to further policymaker’s war on Big Tech. If passed into law, this bill will increase consumer costs and abandon users to fraudsters and hackers by creating penalties for good developers’ efforts to keep people safe.”
The full assessment is available here.
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About The Developers Alliance
The Developers Alliance is the world’s leading advocate for software developers and the companies invested in their success. Alliance members include industry leaders in consumer, enterprise, industrial, and emerging software development, and a global network of more than 70,000 developers.
