Arizona Advances Bill That Will Let Developers Skirt Apple's In-App Purchase Rules

The Arizona House of Representatives today passed HB2005, a state bill that would provide developers with an alternative to Google and Apple's in-app purchase options by allowing developers to use their own payment solutions within apps.

Last week, the Arizona House Committee advanced the bill, and now it has also been approved by the House of Representatives. It will next be heard by the Arizona Senate.

In a hearing last week, Apple chief compliance officer Kyle Andeer called HB2005 a "government mandate that Apple give away the App Store."

"This would allow billion-dollar developers to take all of the app store's value for free, even if they're selling digital goods, even if they're making millions or billions of dollars doing it. The bill is a government mandate that Apple give away the app store."

Apple last month successfully fought back against a similar bill in North Dakota, which would have paved the way for third-party app store options.

Like the North Dakota bill, the Arizona bill was backed by the Coalition for App Fairness, a group that includes companies like Epic Games, Spotify, Basecamp, and Tile, all of whom have had significant issues with Apple's ‌App Store‌ rules. There's a similar bill in Minnesota that Apple is also battling against.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.