UK Lawmaker Calls App Store Fees an 'App Tax' Harming Consumers
A senior Labour MP argues Apple and Google's duopoly over app stores costs consumers and developers, urging UK regulators to act.
A prominent British lawmaker is calling on UK regulators to confront what she describes as an entrenched duopoly between Apple and Google that forces consumers and app developers to pay inflated fees simply to participate in the mobile software marketplace. Chi Onwurah, the Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West and chair of the parliamentary science, innovation and technology committee, frames the issue as an "app tax" levied on anyone who owns a smartphone.
Onwurah argues that the concentration of power held by a handful of global technology companies extends well beyond app store commissions. She has previously raised concerns about the scale of personal data these platforms harvest, the detailed digital profiles they construct of users, and the opaque algorithms that shape what content — including material seen by children — reaches audiences across the country.
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Writing in The Guardian, the MP contends that the tech giants' grip on mobile ecosystems amounts to a form of consumer exploitation that has gone unchallenged for too long. Because both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store serve as unavoidable gatekeepers for the vast majority of smartphone users, developers and consumers have no meaningful alternative, she argues — a structural condition that enables the companies to set terms with little competitive pressure.
Onwurah's intervention comes as digital regulation moves up the UK policy agenda. She specifically points to existing powers held by the country's competition regulator, suggesting the tools to address the abuse are already available and that what is required is the political will to deploy them against some of the world's most valuable corporations.
Continue reading at Business | The Guardian.
