“To prohibit unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the app marketplace, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section requires a covered company (i.e., one that owns or controls an operating system and app store) to (1) enable users to set third-party apps or stores as defaults, install them outside the company's store, and hide or delete the company's pre-installed apps or stores; (2) provide app developers, without cost and on equivalent terms, timely access to the operating system's interfaces, hardware/software features, and related documentation generally available to the company or its partners; and (3) comply with the access requirement by licensing necessary intellectual property or limiting available features to avoid such rights. The section further prohibits such companies from (1) conditioning app access or distribution on using the company's payment system or matching pricing to other platforms, or retaliating against developers for off-platform pricing, alternative payments, or remote third-party app access; (2) restricting or charging fees for developers' legitimate business communications with users (e.g., offers, pricing), subject to equivalent user consent rules; and (3) using nonpublic information from apps on its platform to compete against those apps.
This section establishes Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state enforcement authority for violations of the Act. For the FTC, it (1) treats violations as a violation of a rule under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)) (i.e., a rule defining with specificity unfair or deceptive acts or practices); (2) authorizes enforcement using all applicable FTC Act powers, jurisdiction, duties, penalties, privileges, and immunities; (3) imposes an additional civil penalty of up to $1,000,000 per violation, obtained in the same manner as under section 18(a)(1)(B); and (4) preserves other FTC authorities. For states, it authorizes an attorney general (or equivalent state official or agency) to bring a civil action in federal district court on behalf of state residents, subject to (1) prior written notice to the FTC (or immediate notice if infeasible), including a copy of the complaint; (2) FTC rights to intervene, be heard, and appeal; and (3) a bar on state actions during pendency of a federal action (by the FTC or U.S. Attorney General) against the same defendant for the same alleged violations. (Thus, states retain their own investigative powers.)
This section preempts any state or local law, rule, regulation, or similar provision that (1) prohibits a covered company from engaging in conduct prohibited by section 2, or (2) requires a covered company to take any action required by section 2. This section does not preempt state or local laws relating to contracts, torts, or unfair competition, or laws concerning fraud, unauthorized access to personal information, or notification of such access.
This section provides rules of construction specifying that nothing in the Act may be construed (1) to limit Federal Trade Commission authority under the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) or any other federal law; (2) to require a covered company to provide hardware/software warranty service for damage caused by third-party apps or app stores installed outside the company's app store or customer service for such third-party apps or app stores; (3) to prevent a covered company from taking actions reasonably tailored to protect rights under specified copyright provisions (17 U.S.C. §§106, 1101, 1201, 1401), trademark infringement and false designation provisions of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. §§1114, 1125), or corollary state law; (4) to require a covered company to license its intellectual property, including trade secrets; (5) to prevent a covered company from asserting intellectual property rights against unlawful use of its intellectual property; (6) to require a covered company to work with or share data with sanctioned entities, foreign national security risks (including governments of the People's Republic of China or foreign adversaries), or foreign adversary controlled applications; or (7) to limit federal or state antitrust law.
This section defines terms used in the Act, including "app" (i.e., a software application or electronic service run on consumer computing devices); "app store" (i.e., a service distributing third-party apps to such devices); "Commission" (i.e., the Federal Trade Commission); "covered company" (i.e., a person owning an app store with over 100 million U.S. users and the operating system on which it operates); "developer" (i.e., a person owning an app or app store); "in-app payment system" (i.e., a billing or payment processing interface within an app); "nonpublic business information" (i.e., nonpublic developer or app data collected by a covered company); and "operating system" (including configurations).
This section directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue guidance, not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, to assist covered companies in complying with the Act. The Act takes effect on the date the FTC issues such guidance.