Apple is among the tech giants hiring local lobbyists to battle legislation seeking to limit its power in states such as Arizona, Maryland, and Virginia.
Investigations Abound
The Wall Street Journal reports that battleground issues include App Store fees, digital advertisement, and online privacy. It notes that:
"While federal lawmakers have held hearings and are in discussions about policies to regulate tech companies, debates and votes could occur in states first. If passed, state laws matter because they can become de facto national standards in the absence of federal action, as with California’s 2018 privacy law, which gave consumers both the right to access personal information that businesses collect from them and the right to request that data be deleted and not sold."
Apple, which has made privacy a big part of its corporate mission and identity, is likely to have far less of an issue with privacy-related bills than the likes of Google and Facebook.
However, it has far more issues with an Arizona bill involving App Store payments. The bill could allow developers to get around the cut Apple takes of paid apps, and in-app purchases, which ranges from 15-30%. This is a similar issue to the one Epic Games is currently battling Apple over.
It would mean that Arizona-based developers could charge directly through alternative payment systems. A final vote on the bill could take place within the next month. Republican state Rep. Regina Cobb, the legislation's chief sponsor, believes that the bill has enough votes to pass. However, both Apple and Google have lobbied against it.
A spokesperson for Apple told the Wall Street Journal that Apple, "created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place for users to download the apps they love, and a great business opportunity for developers. This legislation threatens to break that very successful model, and undermine the strong protections we've put in place for customers."
Scrutinizing the Tech Giants
Scrutiny of the tech giants has ramped up over the past several years. In Europe, Apple is the subject of several antitrust investigations focused on Apple Pay, and its control of the App Store. Similar investigations have also been mooted in the United States. While many of these bills or investigations are still at an early stage, they do appear to be gaining more momentum.
Considering that Apple---now valued at more than $2 trillion, and being the most valuable publicly traded company in the world---has more power than ever, that kind of scrutiny is probably warranted. Even if it's not exactly something tech companies are in a rush to have examined.
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