Federal Broadband Administration To Tackle Competitiveness In Mobile Apps

The new head of the federal broadband administration has revealed that part of his role will extend to reviewing competitiveness in the mobile app ecosystem, adding yet another source of antitrust pressure to Apple’s App Store.

This reflects an executive order from President Biden stating that ‘it is the policy of my Administration to enforce the antitrust laws to combat the excessive concentration of industry, the abuses of market power, and the harmful effects of monopoly’…

Axios revealed the surprising news in an interview with the new leader of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Alan Davidson.
But Axios reports Davidson’s vision of a broader role for the NTIA. “[He] also has ambitions to tackle Big Tech issues on the horizon, […] talking about helping set administration policy around app stores and privacy […]”

Davidson also told Axios his agency will soon launch a review of competition in the mobile app ecosystem, with a goal of producing a report this summer to help develop Biden administration policy.

The NTIA’s role is not that of a regulator, but rather to advise the President on policy. Davidson referenced Biden’s wide-ranging Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, signed last summer. One section of this includes wording that could well apply to the App Store.

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