The US state of Arizona on March 3 advanced a bill that would break the cherished grip that Apple and Google have on the handling of payments in mobile apps.
Photo: Chris Delmas/AFP, Getty Images
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Arizona legislators just passed an anti-monopoly bill in a 31-29 vote, which could have big implications for Apple, Google, and, weirdly enough,
Fortnite.
Arizona House Bill HB2005 “restricts the ability of certain digital application distribution platforms to require use of a specific in-application payment system.” (You can read the text of the bill here.) This restriction applies to digital application distribution platforms like the iOS App Store and Google Play, and any other distribution platform that exceeds 1 million cumulative downloads in a single calendar year.
US state advances bill breaking App Store grip on payments dunyanews.tv - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dunyanews.tv Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Arizona House of Representatives adopts law untying in-app payment method from mobile app store monopolies: now on to the State Senate
Today, the Arizona House of Representatives one of the two chambers of the state legislature
PASSED the bill!
This screenshot is from the status webpage (click on the image to enlarge; the PASSED information may not be visible otherwise):
The result of the third reading vote was 31-29. There are 31 Republicans and 29 Democrats in the Arizona State House, and one member per party crossed the aisle, thereby canceling each other out.
A couple of proposed amendments failed, while a proposal by Dr. Cobb (enabling app developers to complain to Arizona s Attorney General about any failure by Apple or Google to comply) was adopted. (Technically, the App Store part of HB2005 was an amendment to a multi-purpose bill, which amendment then in turn got amended in the way just described.)