Kat Cammack

Over time, a select few Big Tech companies have quietly normalized their dominance of app distribution, and Americans have largely accepted it. Apple is the clearest example: the App Store is the only authorized channel through which iPhone users can download apps, giving Apple unchecked control over which developers succeed, what fees they pay, the margins they make, and what child safety protections are deployed.

Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack’s App Store Freedom Act seeks to restore competition to digital marketplaces by addressing app store monopolies at their source. If enacted, consumers could benefit from lower prices, stronger safety protections, and more innovative technologies.

The iPhone is one of the most important technological platforms in modern life. It is how Americans communicate, conduct business, access information, and manage their families’ digital lives. Yet, Apple does not merely manufacture the device; it controls the operating system, the camera, default apps such as Safari and Apple News, and the App Store. The App Store is the only authorized place to download third-party apps.

The Justice Department and 20 state attorneys general are now suing Apple, alleging that it has illegally maintained its smartphone monopoly through technical and contractual restrictions that suppress competition and technologies that would make it easier for users and developers to leave its ecosystem.

Smartwatch makers are blocked from accessing the iMessage APIs necessary to offer full messaging functionality, forcing consumers who want that feature to buy an Apple Watch. Developers are forced to raise prices for iPhone users to offset App Store fees that reach 30% of in-app purchases. Companies building cross-platform services must design around restrictions that do not apply to Apple’s own products.

When one company controls the only authorized distribution channel on a dominant platform, it decides unilaterally which safeguards to implement, which fees to impose, and which competitors can access core functionality. Restoring competition in app distribution will allow market forces to drive improvements in safety, affordability and innovation — outcomes no single gatekeeper has an incentive to deliver on its own.

Apple argues that privacy and security require the App Store to remain the exclusive clearinghouse for iPhone apps. That justification does not hold up under scrutiny. MacBook users can download software directly from the web without going through any app store. The same purported privacy and security concerns would apply there, yet Apple imposes no such restriction. What distinguishes the iPhone is not its security needs; it is the App Store’s estimated tens-of-billions-of-dollars annual cash flow.

This debate is not about punishing success. Apple makes great products and has earned its place in the market. However, antitrust law has never permitted a company to leverage its dominance to foreclose competition, regardless of how popular its products are.

Jordan Sekulow is the executive director for the American Center for Law and Justice./Brandon Kressin is the director of the Coalition for a Competitive Mobile Experience/InsideSources