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S2153-119

In Committee

Open App Markets Act

119th Congress Introduced Jun 24, 2025

Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.

Summary

What This Bill Does

The bill establishes key definitions for the Act, including "covered company" (app store operators with 50M+ monthly US users who also control the operating system), "app store", "developer", "in-app payment system", prohibits covered companies from requiring developers to use their in-app payment systems, from requiring pricing parity, from retaliating against developers who use alternative payment or distribution methods, and creates affirmative defenses for covered companies allowing them to take actions that would otherwise violate Section 3 if necessary for user privacy/security, preventing fraud/spam, protecting IP rights, or complying. It relies on compliance mandates, exemptions, liability protections, and definition changes. The main policy areas are Technology and Finance.

Who Benefits and How

Mobile device consumers could see lower costs, Third-party app developers (e.g., Epic Games, Spotify) could see lower costs, and Alternative app store operators could face fewer barriers.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. (covered companies) could face increased risk, Apple Inc. (iOS App Store) could lose revenue opportunities, and Apple Inc. (iOS App Store and iOS operating system) would take on compliance duties.

Key Provisions

  • Establishes key definitions for the Act, including "covered company" (app store operators with 50M+ monthly US users who also control the operating system), "app store", "developer", "in-app payment system"...
  • Prohibits covered companies from requiring developers to use their in-app payment systems, from requiring pricing parity, from retaliating against developers who use alternative payment or distribution methods...
  • Creates affirmative defenses for covered companies allowing them to take actions that would otherwise violate Section 3 if necessary for user privacy/security, preventing fraud/spam, protecting IP rights, or complying...
  • Requires grants enforcement authority to FTC, DOJ, and State AGs using antitrust law powers.
  • Requires FTC, GAO, and DOJ Antitrust Division to separately review and analyze the impact of this Act on competition, innovation, barriers to entry, and market concentration within 3 years of enactment.

Evidence Chain:

This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.

At a Glance

What This Bill Does

The bill establishes key definitions for the Act, including "covered company" (app store operators with 50M+ monthly US users who also control the operating system), "app store", "developer", "in-app payment system", prohibits covered companies from requiring developers to use their in-app payment systems, from requiring pricing parity, from retaliating against developers who use alternative payment or distribution methods, and creates affirmative defenses for covered companies allowing them to take actions that would otherwise violate Section 3 if necessary for user privacy/security, preventing fraud/spam, protecting IP rights, or complying.

Key Policy Areas

Technology, Finance

Primary Purpose

The bill establishes key definitions for the Act, including "covered company" (app store operators with 50M+ monthly US users who also control the operating system), "app store", "developer", "in-app payment system", prohibits covered companies from requiring developers to use their in-app payment systems, from requiring pricing parity, from retaliating against developers who use alternative payment or distribution methods, and creates affirmative defenses for covered companies allowing them to take actions that would otherwise violate Section 3 if necessary for user privacy/security, preventing fraud/spam, protecting IP rights, or complying.

Policy Domains

Technology Finance

Open App Markets Act

Identified Gains
  • Mobile device consumers
  • Third-party app developers (e.g., Epic Games, Spotify)
  • Alternative app store operators
  • Alternative payment processors (e.g., Stripe, PayPal)
  • Third-party app developers
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
Mobile device consumers: ,
Third-party app developers:
Alternative app store operators:
Alternative payment processors (e.g., Stripe, PayPal):
Third-party app developers (e.g., Epic Games, Spotify):
Identified Costs
  • Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. (covered companies)
  • Apple Inc. (iOS App Store)
  • Apple Inc. (iOS App Store and iOS operating system)
  • Alphabet Inc. (Google Play Store)
  • Alphabet Inc. (Google Play Store and Android operating system)
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
Apple Inc. (iOS App Store):
Alphabet Inc. (Google Play Store):
Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. (covered companies): ,
Apple Inc. (iOS App Store and iOS operating system):
Alphabet Inc. (Google Play Store and Android operating system):

Sponsors

Marsha Blackburn

Marsha Blackburn

R-TN | Primary Sponsor

5 cosponsors

Legislative Progress

In Committee
Introduced Committee Passed
Jun 24, 2025

Mrs. Blackburn (for herself, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Lee, Ms. Klobuchar, …

Jun 24, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Jun 24, 2025

Introduced in Senate

Stakeholder Effects

cui bono?

How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.

Technology
12 mentions across 5 clauses
+5 positive -7 negative

Alphabet Inc. (Google Play Store and Android operating system), Alphabet Inc. (Google Play Store), Alternative app store operators

Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. (covered companies) faces effects in multiple directions

Positive-direction: Alternative app store operators, Intellectual property holders, Third-party app developers, Third-party app developers (e.g., Epic Games, Spotify)

Negative-direction: Alphabet Inc. (Google Play Store and Android operating system), Alphabet Inc. (Google Play Store), Apple Inc. (iOS App Store and iOS operating system), Apple Inc. (iOS App Store), Chinese technology companies (e.g., TikTok, Huawei)

Government
5 mentions across 2 clauses
-3 negative ?2 uncertain

DOJ Antitrust Division, Federal Trade Commission, Government Accountability Office

Consumers
2 mentions across 2 clauses
+2 positive

Mobile device consumers

Payment Processing Services
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

Alternative payment processors (e.g., Stripe, PayPal)

6/9
sections analyzed
Full impact breakdown

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Technology Finance
Actor Mappings
"ftc"
→ Federal Trade Commission
"state_ag"
→ State Attorneys General
"attorney_general"
→ U.S. Attorney General

Key Definitions

Terms defined in this bill

4 terms
"app store" §app_store

A publicly available website, software application, or other electronic service that distributes apps from third-party developers to users

"covered company" §covered_company

Any person that owns or controls an app store with over 50,000,000 US monthly users AND the operating system on which that app store operates

"in-app payment system" §in_app_payment_system

An application, service, or user interface to manage billing or process payments from users of an app

"nonpublic business information" §nonpublic_business_info

Nonpublic data derived from a developer or app, including user interactions, collected by a covered company in the course of operating an app store

We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.

Learn more about our methodology