After a botched law was proposed in North Dakota earlier this month that would have forced Apple to allow developers to sideload apps and use alternative in-app payments, a similar law has officially been introduced in Minnesota.
Arizona just introduced similar legislation this week, and now Minnesota has also followed in the footsteps of North Dakota. Notably, the latter state’s anti-App Store law was not passed last week with a vote of 36-11.
According to StarTribune, the new Minnesota bill filed last week aims to reshape the power of Apple and Google to remove apps from their stores:
The proposal – quietly introduced last week – would force the two tech giants to keep Minnesota developers’ products in their app stores, even if those developers sell them directly or through other channels.
Here’s what the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, had to say:
“A lot of people are concerned about the increased influence and power that Big Tech has, and I think there is a lot of interest in making sure we have a fair and open digital economy,” said Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, who sponsors the bill in the house.
Apple and Google did not comment on the matter, but the StarTribune said they are both lobbying against the Minnesota law.
Apple did not return a request for comment for this story, while Google declined to comment on Minnesota law. But both groups are privately lobbying individual lawmakers to oppose the measure.
One of Apple and Google’s allies here is the group “Americans for Prosperity:”
Jason Flohrs, the state director of Americans for Prosperity in Minnesota, said there are concerns about the privacy and security of allowing other payment processing providers on the app store, and the group is fundamentally against any legislation that would require the government to “ to give a mandate ‘. on private companies. “
It probably won’t be long before we find out how lawmakers in Minnesota and Arizona will vote on the new bills and more states will almost certainly be doing the same soon.
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