Considering Epic Games’ legal interest in seeing Apple and Google allow for alternative payment systems and app stores, this bit of news makes perfect sense: A bill introduced into North Dakota’s senate would ban Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store from mandating developers only use those app stores and their respective in-app payment systems, as well as ban those companies from retaliating against app devs who do so, and Epic is throwing its lobbying weight behind the bill.
According to reporting from The New York Times, draft legislation for the bill was handed to North Dakota Senator Kyle Davidson by Lacee Bjork Anderson, a lobbyist with Odney Public Affairs in Bismarck, who has said in an interview that she was hired by Epic Games as well as the Coalition for App Fairness whose members include Epic and other larger firms like Spotify and Match Group, the company behind online dating app services like Tinder, OKCupid, and Match. You know, the little guys.
Davidson has said that the intent of the bill is to “level the playing field for app developers in North Dakota and protect customers from devastating, monopolistic fees imposed by big tech companies.” The North Dakota senate is expected to vote on the bill this weekend.
