North Dakota App Bill Demonstrates Growing Momentum to Challenge Big Tech’s Dominance
Washington, D.C. – The American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement after the North Dakota Senate voted on SB-2333, a bill to limit the power of dominant app distributors such as Apple.
“By leveling the playing field for app developers, bills like the one voted on by the North Dakota Senate today would help to address the range of harms Apple and Google pose to small businesses and local communities,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Though it did not pass, the bill’s introduction is further evidence that momentum is building at the state and local level to challenge Big Tech’s unfair and monopolistic practices.”
“As the House Antitrust Subcommittee explained in its historic report, Apple and Google use their position as app store gatekeepers to force developers and small businesses to use their platforms and agree to unfair and extortionary terms. Bills such as SB-2333 would prevent that abuse from occurring,” added Garofalo.
“We hope similar bills will be introduced in other states and are eager to support lawmakers and antitrust enforcers looking to challenge the dominant Big Tech corporations that are choking innovation out of the economy and siphoning away revenue that supports small businesses,” said Garofalo.
Read “Close to Home: How the Power of Facebook and Google Affects Local Communities” here.
Learn more about Economic Liberties here.
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Economic Liberties works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. AELP believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.