Mysterious case of Arizona state senators skipping a vote on tackling Apple and Google's app commissions
(2021/03/26)
- Reference: 1616722753
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/03/26/arizona_app_bill/
- Source link:
A law bill proposed in Arizona that would allow app developers to avoid Apple and Google's mandatory in-app payment systems and associated commission fees has stalled – after state senators mysteriously skipped a vote on it.
The legislation was put forward by state House Representative Regina Cobb (R) and narrowly passed the US state's House by 31-29, with Republicans mostly for it and Democrats mostly against. It now requires a sign off by the state Senate and governor to become law.
[1]
The bill, [2]HB2005 , forbids any “digital application distribution platform” with more than a million downloads a year from forcing application makers domiciled in Arizona to use "a particular in-application payment system as the exclusive mode of accepting payments from a user to download a software application or purchase a digital or physical product or service through a software application."
It also, among other things, bans platforms from retaliating "against a developer that is domiciled in this state or an Arizona user for using an in-application payment system or digital application distribution platform that is not owned by, operated by or affiliated with the provider or retaliate against a developer for that use to distribute applications to or accept payments from Arizona users."
[3]
This would give mobile application makers in Arizona the choice to opt out of using the Apple App Store and Google Play's payments service, which typically take up to a 30 per cent cut of app purchases and in-app transactions, and use something else instead.
Google halves Android app fee to 15% for lower-earning devs... who aren't responsible for majority of revenue anyway [4]READ MORE
In short, the bill prevents tech giants from shaking down app developers with commission fees, and was due to be voted on by senators on Wednesday.
But it was stopped dead in its tracks on the day by the state Senate's commerce committee, which put a hold on the bill's legislative progress. This has sparked fears of backroom deals and political chicanery.
David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of the Ruby on Rails software and founder and CTO of email app Hey, hoped to address the Senate for a couple of minutes ahead of the vote to advocate for developers – and was shocked to discover senators had decided to not consider the proposed legislation at the last minute. He believes the tech giants have pulled some strings to get the bill black holed, with both companies have been [5]lobbying against the incoming rules.
Specifically, Hansson claimed Apple recruited a former chief of staff of Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R) to negotiate an end to HB2005.
So apparently some backroom deal has been struck that killed the opportunity for this bill to be heard by the committee today. I guess whatever money Apple spent to hire the governor's former chief of staff is paying off! Sheesh. — DHH (@dhh) [6]March 24, 2021
There is a deafening silence from the commerce committee on whether the bill has been merely postponed or shelved indefinitely, and the reasons why. The draft law's status at time of publication is [7]officially listed as “held.” It’s clearly difficult to loosen the tech goliaths' grip on the industry: a [8]similar bill proposed in North Dakota was rejected by lawmakers last month.
The Coalition for App Fairness, a non-profit organization lobbying for the bill, which has the backing of Apple-bothering [9]Epic , told El Reg the battle to stand up to Silicon Valley is not yet lost: “The legislative session is not over. We will continue to push for solutions that will increase choice, support app developers and small businesses and put a stop to monopolistic practices.”
[10]
Cobb, Senate commerce committee chairman JD Mesnard (R), Hansson, Apple, and Google were not immediately available for comment. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YF1qcCLDDEqyLgFClmcLiwAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://legiscan.com/AZ/rollcall/HB2005/id/1020665
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YF1qcCLDDEqyLgFClmcLiwAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/16/google_app_commission/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/02/apple_app_store_payments/
[6] https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1374840018842304512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[7] https://legiscan.com/AZ/text/HB2005/2021
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/17/epic_apple_north_dakota_eu/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/12/apple_epic_court/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YF1qcCLDDEqyLgFClmcLiwAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The legislation was put forward by state House Representative Regina Cobb (R) and narrowly passed the US state's House by 31-29, with Republicans mostly for it and Democrats mostly against. It now requires a sign off by the state Senate and governor to become law.
[1]
The bill, [2]HB2005 , forbids any “digital application distribution platform” with more than a million downloads a year from forcing application makers domiciled in Arizona to use "a particular in-application payment system as the exclusive mode of accepting payments from a user to download a software application or purchase a digital or physical product or service through a software application."
It also, among other things, bans platforms from retaliating "against a developer that is domiciled in this state or an Arizona user for using an in-application payment system or digital application distribution platform that is not owned by, operated by or affiliated with the provider or retaliate against a developer for that use to distribute applications to or accept payments from Arizona users."
[3]
This would give mobile application makers in Arizona the choice to opt out of using the Apple App Store and Google Play's payments service, which typically take up to a 30 per cent cut of app purchases and in-app transactions, and use something else instead.
Google halves Android app fee to 15% for lower-earning devs... who aren't responsible for majority of revenue anyway [4]READ MORE
In short, the bill prevents tech giants from shaking down app developers with commission fees, and was due to be voted on by senators on Wednesday.
But it was stopped dead in its tracks on the day by the state Senate's commerce committee, which put a hold on the bill's legislative progress. This has sparked fears of backroom deals and political chicanery.
David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of the Ruby on Rails software and founder and CTO of email app Hey, hoped to address the Senate for a couple of minutes ahead of the vote to advocate for developers – and was shocked to discover senators had decided to not consider the proposed legislation at the last minute. He believes the tech giants have pulled some strings to get the bill black holed, with both companies have been [5]lobbying against the incoming rules.
Specifically, Hansson claimed Apple recruited a former chief of staff of Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R) to negotiate an end to HB2005.
So apparently some backroom deal has been struck that killed the opportunity for this bill to be heard by the committee today. I guess whatever money Apple spent to hire the governor's former chief of staff is paying off! Sheesh. — DHH (@dhh) [6]March 24, 2021
There is a deafening silence from the commerce committee on whether the bill has been merely postponed or shelved indefinitely, and the reasons why. The draft law's status at time of publication is [7]officially listed as “held.” It’s clearly difficult to loosen the tech goliaths' grip on the industry: a [8]similar bill proposed in North Dakota was rejected by lawmakers last month.
The Coalition for App Fairness, a non-profit organization lobbying for the bill, which has the backing of Apple-bothering [9]Epic , told El Reg the battle to stand up to Silicon Valley is not yet lost: “The legislative session is not over. We will continue to push for solutions that will increase choice, support app developers and small businesses and put a stop to monopolistic practices.”
[10]
Cobb, Senate commerce committee chairman JD Mesnard (R), Hansson, Apple, and Google were not immediately available for comment. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YF1qcCLDDEqyLgFClmcLiwAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://legiscan.com/AZ/rollcall/HB2005/id/1020665
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YF1qcCLDDEqyLgFClmcLiwAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/16/google_app_commission/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/02/apple_app_store_payments/
[6] https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1374840018842304512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[7] https://legiscan.com/AZ/text/HB2005/2021
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/17/epic_apple_north_dakota_eu/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/12/apple_epic_court/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YF1qcCLDDEqyLgFClmcLiwAAANI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Relax, buddy
diodesign
What we meant was: the committee hasn't been forthcoming on what its intentions are and the reasons for stalling the bill. I've reworded that sentence to reflect this.
C.
Unclear?
"It’s unclear if the vote has been merely postponed, or if the bill is now unlikely to ever be put to a vote."
ElReg is being uncharacteristically generous. Maybe because it's late at night and people wanted to logoff for the day.
It is very clear that the fix is in and the bill has been dropped in the shredder, never to be seen again in this legislative session.