Meta, Spotify, and Match Launch Coalition Against Apple and Google

A new lobbying group formed by Meta, Spotify, and Match Group is challenging Apple and Google's role in the mobile app ecosystem, arguing the company should bear legal responsibility for verifying users' ages and accusing them of anti-competitive business practices that disadvantage developers, Bloomberg reports.

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The "Coalition for a Competitive Mobile Experience" is a coordinated effort by these major companies to influence federal and state legislation amid mounting pressure to implement digital safeguards for minors. The coalition intends to lobby lawmakers, engage with federal regulators, and support ongoing antitrust enforcement actions against Apple and Google.

The group's immediate concern is a growing legislative push to require age verification for users downloading mobile apps that may be unsuitable for minors. A law enacted in Utah in March requires app stores to verify a user's age and obtain parental consent before allowing minors to download certain applications. Additional proposals are reportedly being drafted at the federal level.

The coalition's members argue that Apple and Google, as gatekeepers of the iOS App Store and Google Play Store respectively, are best positioned to implement uniform age verification protocols across devices and markets. By contrast, Apple and Google have maintained that responsibility should lie with individual app developers, who are directly collecting and processing user data within their apps.

In recent years, Apple has introduced features aimed at limiting children's exposure to harmful content, including communication safety tools and default app restrictions for child accounts, but the company has been reluctant to assume primary responsibility for verifying user identities at the download stage.

Beyond age verification, the coalition aims to highlight broader concerns over Apple's app distribution practices. These include the company's 15–30% commission on digital transactions, mandatory use of its in-app purchase system, and restrictions on alternative app marketplaces or payment methods.

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Top Rated Comments

Artemiz Avatar
9 weeks ago
You lost me at Meta
Score: 46 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nuckinfutz Avatar
9 weeks ago
A Triumvirate of "Loser" companies.

I will never subscribe to Spotify again. I detest their CEO and thus the company.

I would abandon Facebook tomorrow if there existed a credible competitor. I am actively De-Googling my life.

Apple is not perfect but I trust them a hell of a lot more than the aforementioned companies.
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gleepskip Avatar
9 weeks ago
Age verification? No thanks. I'll parent my children myself without forcing everyone in the country to show their "papers" to get on the internet.
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lounge vibes 05 Avatar
9 weeks ago
I’m confused, I thought these companies wanted Apple to open iOS up… so everything *wouldn’t* have to go through the AppStore?


Now, they want Apple to handle all age verification and related tasks… because they own the AppStore? Wha? Which way do you want it?


Either you can have Apple control everything, from App distribution to payments to age verification… or you want Apple to open its platform. You can’t have both, you can’t have the cake and eat it too.


For anything like this to actually be *useful* it’s pretty much required to go through one single App Store controlled by one single company, in this case Apple.


Or else it does nothing. If Facebookcan be downloaded outside of the AppStore, but the AppStore handles *everything* including age verification, now there’s a simple way around any verification, which is to… not use the AppStore.


Again Meta, Spotify, Epic, you either want Apple in charge of everything or Apple in charge of nothing. You can’t have both.


They are literally making Apple’s argument against sideloading for them.
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
diskrisk Avatar
9 weeks ago
The three worst tech companies I can think of have coalesced together because they want other companies to do their job and still pay less for that service.
Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aloysiusfreeman Avatar
9 weeks ago
There should be a coalition that seeks to try Mark Zuckerberg for crimes against humanity.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)