North Dakota state Senate blocks bill that would have required app stores to allow devs to use their own payment systems; Epic lobbied in favor of the bill
- The North Dakota state senate voted 36-11 on Tuesday not to pass a bill that would have required app stores to enable software developers …
CNBCKif Leswing
Context & Ripple Effects
North Dakota was an early state-level test of whether app-store operators could be required to open in-app payments to developers. Epic’s support made the vote part of its wider challenge to platform control over distribution and transactions.
Apple and Google avoid a North Dakota-specific obligation to let developers process in-app payments through their own systems.
Epic and other developers lose an immediate state legislative route to change app-store payment rules in North Dakota.
Second-order effects
The failed vote, followed by Arizona’s stalled measure, makes piecemeal state legislation a less reliable lever for developers seeking payment-system access.
The fight shifts toward jurisdictions and proposals with broader reach, including South Korea’s enacted law and the bipartisan Open App Markets Act proposal.
Third-order effects
App-store payment policy is increasingly being contested through legislation and courts rather than set solely by platform operators; the later appeals ruling allowing developer steering reinforces that multi-front pressure.
If national or overseas rules proliferate, Apple and Google face a less uniform model for governing payments, developer links, and app distribution.
The trend: App-store gatekeeping is becoming a regulatory and legal contest over developers’ ability to reach users and collect payments outside platform-controlled systems.
Breaking: The North Dakota senate just voted down the bill that would've banned Apple and Google from taking a cut of app sales from firms in the state. Arizona and Georgia are considering similar bills, which are attracting intense lobbying on all sides. https://www.nytimes.com/…
North Dakota's effort to combat app store monopolies is awesome for consumers and developers. The Coalition for App Fairness organized the outreach, lobbying, and developer participation. Can't take credit for it, but Epic is proud to be a part of it! https://appleinsider.com/...
I've long thought that there's a neoliberal efficient markets-type argument to be made that Apple shouldn't take a cut of app revenue because having more apps enables it to sell more phones https://twitter.com/...
There's some strange stuff in today's articles. Guesswork presented as facts. Engadget with the subtitle “The bill opens the possibility of circumventing trusted payment methods”? Like Visa, Paypal and Stripe are untrusted without Apple gatekeeping? https://www.engadget.com/...
The vote in North Dakota was 36 senators against the bill, 11 for it. Arizona, Georgia and Massachusetts are now considering similar legislation, which is being pushed by Epic Games and its group, @appfairness: https://www.nytimes.com/...
“While it might look self-serving for Epic to be behind the legislation, the US government has been looking into big tech monopolies for a while.” That's...not a counter to “it might look self-serving”, Kotaku. It *is* self-serving, the question is whether one cares. https://twit…
@rsgnl No, I think that dozens of Very Concerned Citizens just showed up to voice their Legitimate Concerns about state v FTC jurisdiction distinctions in a bill that could start the snowball where Apple ends up losing billions in extortion fees. Totally 😂🤣 https://www.vice.com/.…
My two favorite objections to this bill. People have no idea how totally fake App Store star ratings can be, or how easily scammers buy them in bulk every day. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Apple's lobbyists must have studied the playbook of the fake reviews on their own platforms. The “public” commentary on the Arizona bill to grant devs protection from App Store extortion/retaliation is 🤯. These identical comments just go on for days. https://apps.azleg.gov/... ht…
Update: ND Legislature punted on the bill. Once the battle was fully joined, they likely realized Epic's state lobbyist undersold how big a fight this would be. ND has little reason to pick sides in a company vs. company dispute. https://twitter.com/...
A North Dakota bill that an Apple executive had warned “threatens to destroy iPhone as you know it” died in a vote on Tuesday. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Shame about North Dakota, but fantastic this bill got up for a vote, and that the snowball is rolling for similar legislation in multiple other states. It's not easy going first. And Apple and Google have infinite lobbying budgets to scare legislators with. But someone will dare.…
In today's On Tech: The tale of tech is repeated versions of: “Oh, wow, what should we do about this thing that we left alone until it got giant?” I talked with @dmccabe about why governments from Warsaw to Bismarck are rethinking the rules for tech. https://www.nytimes.com/...