“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 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 developers, without cost and on equivalent terms, timely access to the operating system's interfaces, hardware and software features, and related documentation; with compliance via intellectual property licensing or limiting features implicating such rights. The section further prohibits such companies from (1) conditioning app access on using the company's payment system or matching pricing across platforms, or penalizing developers for external pricing, alternative payments, or remote third-party app access; (2) restricting or charging fees for developers' business communications with users (subject to equivalent user consent rules applied to the company); and (3) using nonpublic information from third-party apps to compete against them.
This section establishes FTC and state enforcement authority for violations of the Act. **(a) FTC Enforcement**—Treats violations as a violation of a rule under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the FTC Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)) regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices; grants the FTC all jurisdiction, powers, duties, penalties, privileges, and immunities under the FTC Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.); imposes an additional civil penalty of up to $1 million per violation, obtained in the same manner as section 18(a)(1)(B) penalties; and preserves other FTC authority. **(b) State Enforcement**—Authorizes state attorneys general (or designees) to bring civil actions in U.S. district court on behalf of state residents, subject to prior written notice to the FTC (or immediate post-filing notice if infeasible, including the complaint); grants the FTC rights to intervene, be heard on all matters, and appeal; prohibits state actions during pendency of FTC or DOJ enforcement against the same defendants for the same alleged violations; and preserves state powers to investigate, administer oaths, and compel evidence.
This section preempts any state or local law, rule, regulation, or similar measure that prohibits a covered company from engaging in conduct prohibited by section 2 or requires a covered company to take any action mandated by section 2. This section does not preempt state or local laws relating to contracts, torts, or unfair competition, or to fraud, unauthorized access to personal information, or notification of such access.
This section provides rules of construction specifying that nothing in the Act (1) limits Federal Trade Commission authority under the FTC Act or other federal laws; (2) requires a covered company to provide warranty service for third-party app damage or customer service for third-party app installation outside the company's app store; (3) prevents a covered company from protecting rights under specified copyright provisions (17 U.S.C. §§106, 1101, 1201, 1401) or the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. §§1114, 1125), or corollary state law; (4) requires licensing of the covered company's intellectual property, including trade secrets; (5) prevents the covered company from asserting intellectual property rights against unlawful use; (6) requires the covered company to work with or share data with sanctioned entities, specified foreign security risks (e.g., Government of the People's Republic of China), or foreign adversary controlled applications; or (7) limits federal or state antitrust law.
This section defines terms used in the Act, including "app" (i.e., a software application run on consumer computing devices); "app store" (i.e., a service distributing third-party apps); "Commission" (i.e., the Federal Trade Commission); "covered company" (i.e., a person controlling an app store with over 100 million U.S. users and its operating system); "developer" (i.e., a person owning or controlling an app or app store); "in-app payment system" (i.e., a billing or payment interface within an app); "nonpublic business information" (i.e., nonpublic developer-derived data collected by covered companies); and "operating system."
This section directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue guidance to assist covered companies in complying with the Act no later than 180 days after enactment and makes the Act effective on the date such guidance is issued.