The U.S. Senate has introduced a bill Wednesday that seeks to protect app developers' rights, and challenge Apple and Google's app store policies.
Dubbed the Open App Markets Act, the bill is spearheaded by senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) It would ban app stores from monopolizing their position in the app economy by requiring mobile game developers to use their own stores' payment systems. In other words, mobile game devs would be free to use their own in-game payment systems and offer cheaper prices to consumers without being punished by Apple and Google for not using their stores' payment models.
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The bill comes as Apple and Google are in the middle of a lawsuit with Fortnite developer Epic Games. Epic challenged both of the payment models after it added its own direct transaction system into the game last August. In retaliation, both tech giants removed Fortnite from their app stores.
If the bill is passed into law, mobile game devs will be permitted to make their in-app items more affordable to purchase via microtransactions. Epic Games tried doing this by making V-Bucks more affordable if players bought them directly from the Fortnite app, as opposed to going through the app store, in which Epic would have to share any money made through purchases with Apple and Google.
Meanwhile, a trial for the Epic Games v. Apple case was held on May 3, and a judge is currently reviewing the case to determine whether Apple's app store policies violate anti-trust law. Two months later, Google faced a similar lawsuit from 36 states, including the District of Columbia, regarding its app store's model. Court documents suggested that Google even considered buying Epic Games in order to eliminate the competition completely.
To this day, Fortnite is still unavailable on Apple and Google's app stores. Although microtransactions still remain a controversial topic in the gaming industry – especially when it comes to children mindlessly maxing out their parents' credit cards on Fortnite loot – Apple and Google removing one of the most popular apps on the store for disobeying its policies would understandably get political attention.
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