NTIA Report Seeks Changes to App Ecosystem
A new report by NTIA found problems in the current app ecosystem and urged action to increase competition. The report was prepared in response to President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order on competition. “The policies that Apple and Google have…
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in place in their own mobile app stores have created unnecessary barriers and costs for app developers, ranging from fees for access to functional restrictions that favor some apps over others,” the report said: “These obstacles impose costs on firms and organizations offering new technology: apps lack features, development and roll-out costs are higher, customer relations are damaged, and many apps fail to reach a large number of users.” The report urged Congress to enact laws and government agencies to do rulemakings “to limit or prohibit discrimination and anticompetitive conduct as a complement to, and clarification of, existing antitrust authority.” Users should be able to set third party apps or mobile app stores as their defaults, and delete or hide pre-installed apps, the report said. Prevent platforms from using confidential business data from any third-party app “to then support the offering of its own competing app on that platform,” it advised: “Prevent a platform from ‘self-preferencing’ its own apps in an anticompetitive manner.” Apple didn’t comment Thursday. “We disagree with how this report characterizes Android, which enables more choice and competition than any other mobile operating system,” a Google spokesperson emailed: “NTIA recognizes the importance of interoperability, multiple app stores and sideloading, which Android’s open system already supports -- all while ensuring privacy and security.” Ari Cohn, TechFreedom’s free speech counsel, urged caution: “Vague, ill-defined causes of action, untethered from established antitrust law, will inevitably be weaponized. App developers and users who monetize their content will file endless litigation whenever they disagree with routine content moderation decisions that have nothing to do with anticompetitive behavior.”