The other bill that could undo the App Store gets batted around today in committee. MacRumors says the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is set to consider the Open Markets Act. That’s the one that, according to a piece last month from 9 to 5 Mac, would mandate that:
Competing app stores would be allowed on iPhones and Android phones
Consumers would choose which app store app to download
Consumers would choose their default apps
Apple and Google would not be allowed to do anything to give their own app stores an advantage
Well, that sounds like sideloading to Apple, and Apple is ag’in’ it. In a letter sent to the committee ahead of today’s consideration, Apple's head of government affairs in the Americas Tim Powderly likened sideloading to the end of days.
But not really. Rather, MacRumors had him arguing:
Sideloading would enable bad actors to evade Apple's privacy and security protections by distributing apps without critical privacy and security checks. These provisions would allow malware, scams and data-exploitation to proliferate.
He also said that Apple is “deeply concerned” that the legislation in its current form would also “make it easier for big social media platforms to avoid the pro-consumer practices of Apple's App Store.”
MacRumors figures the Open Markets Act will get out of committee as easily as the American Innovation and Choice Online Act did last month. How the full Senate will handle it (or whether it even will) is another matter entirely.