Members of ACT | The App Association are innovative small businesses and independent developers driving change in the global app economy. From artificial intelligence and digital trade to connected health and decentralized technologies, our members build the tools and services that power today’s digital world. Just as a passport enables global movement, thoughtful policies open doors for small businesses to innovate, create jobs, and connect with communities worldwide. To sustain this progress, government policies must encourage innovation and growth rather than impose unnecessary burdens. When regulations miss the mark, they can harm small businesses and limit the benefits these innovators deliver.
As we embark on 2025, our Global Policy Passport outlines the key priorities to empower the small businesses driving the digital economy. By addressing key challenges and fostering innovation, we can unlock new opportunities for small businesses and strengthen the global digital economy. Below, we outline our top policy priorities for the year.
Stamping Key Policies for 2025
Artificial Intelligence
AI is no longer a future consideration; it is an active driver of change spanning industries from healthcareto agriculture to government contracting. Small businesses are leading the development of AI tools across these fields; however, one-size-fits-all policies and outright bans on specific uses of AI risk disproportionately impacting small innovators who lack the resources of larger competitors. To strike a balance between enabling innovation and addressing hazards, regulation of AI should be based on intended uses and demonstrated harms, rather than hypotheticals or edge use cases.
Member Ask: Any regulation policymakers consider must be risk-based and scalable, accounting for AI’s context and intended uses. A technology-neutral approach is essential to fostering innovation while managing risks. Overregulation jeopardizes investment in AI-driven solutions and widens the gap between large incumbents and small innovators.
Digital Trade and Cross-Border Data Flows
Digital trade drives the global app economy, enabling small businesses to reach new markets, grow, and innovate. Seamless cross-border data flows are essential for developers to deliver products and services worldwide. However, data localization mandates and fragmented digital trade policies create costly compliance burdens that disproportionately harm small businesses and limit innovation. Without harmonized rules, small innovators face rising barriers that hinder their ability to compete globally.
Member Ask: Global leaders must prioritize harmonized digital trade policies that protect cross-border data flows, reduce compliance complexity, and support fair competition. This includes rejecting data localization mandates, preventing digital customs duties, safeguarding encryption and other security tools, and protecting intellectual property rights. Strengthening digital trade agreements with enforceable provisions will empower small businesses to thrive in the global digital economy.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are critical for small and mid-sized technology companies to scale, attract investment, and continue driving innovation. For many startups and small businesses, a merger or acquisition is a key pathway to secure growth capital, expand operations, and deliver returns to early-stage investors. However, increasingly complex and burdensome M&A regulations in various regions risk limiting these opportunities, discouraging investment, and slowing innovation in the global digital economy.
Member Ask: Policymakers should implement clear, balanced M&A review processes that distinguish between harmful, anti-competitive mergers and pro-competitive acquisitions that support small business growth. Frameworks must be transparent, predictable, and proportionate, ensuring that they do not unnecessarily hinder small businesses seeking growth opportunities. Supporting responsible M&A activity is essential to fostering a dynamic, innovative, and competitive global tech ecosystem.
Privacy and Competition
In today’s digital economy, privacy, security, and competition are deeply interconnected and critical to sustainable innovation. For small businesses, consumer trust is a vital competitive edge. Unlike large corporations with global recognition and vast resources, small companies depend on delivering secure, privacy-first solutions to reach customers and grow. Digital platforms provide essential tools that help small businesses protect user data and build this trust.
However, fragmented and overly complex privacy regulations across different regions, along with competition policies that disrupt platform-developer collaboration, create barriers that disproportionately harm small businesses. Large corporations can absorb these compliance costs, but for smaller companies, they lead to higher expenses, reduced consumer trust, and fewer opportunities to innovate and compete.
Member Ask: Global policymakers must take a balanced approach to competition and privacy regulation. Laws should preserve the critical tools and infrastructure that help small businesses protect user data and compete fairly while addressing anti-competitive behavior that harms consumers and innovation.
Standard–Essential Patents
Standardized solutions that enable devices to interoperate, such as Wi-Fi, are a foundation of innovation and competition. Abuse of standard-essential patent (SEP) licensing threatens small businesses by locking them out from using these standardized solutions, creating significant barriers to innovation and needlessly increasing costs. Small innovators can face challenges licensing standardized technologies under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.
Member Ask: Policymakers should take action to support competition and innovation across critical and emerging technology markets by preventing SEP licensing abuses. Ambiguities in current SEP licensing policy and law continue to enable licensor abuses that lock small businesses out of standards-driven markets.
Decentralized Technologies
Decentralized technologies like blockchain are revolutionizing industries, from powering secure cryptocurrency transactions to enabling transparent supply chain tracking. These innovations offer small businesses new ways to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and give users greater control over their data. However, ambiguous or overly restrictive regulations around blockchain and cryptocurrency risk stifling innovation and limiting access to these transformative tools.
Member Ask: Policymakers must provide regulatory clarity for blockchain technologies, including cryptocurrency and other use cases like supply chain management. A balanced approach will foster innovation, address risks, and ensure small businesses can harness these tools to drive economic growth and build trust in the digital economy.
Connected Health
The Connected Health Initiative (CHI) is at the forefront of the healthcare revolution, driving global advancements in digital health technology. The capabilities of connected and digital health products and services to enhance patient outcomes while reducing costs are only beginning to be realized, and significant policy changes are needed to fully embrace their potential.
Member Ask: Lawmakers worldwide should champion policies that responsibly support the development and uptake of digital and connected health solutions into healthcare systems to improve healthcare access and quality. These policies should provide new incentives that reward the responsible use of quality digital health tools while ensuring patient privacy and the secure and interoperable flow of health data.
Workforce Development
Expanding access to computer science education and addressing disparities in representation is critical for fostering innovation and ensuring the long-term competitiveness of the digital economy. Yet, gaps in opportunity and workforce development remain a global challenge. To close these gaps, governments and businesses must work together to expand equitable access to education and create pathways into tech for underrepresented groups. By investing in workforce development, we can ensure that the app economy reflects the diversity of the communities it serves and unlocks the full potential of tomorrow’s innovators.
Member Ask: Governments and businesses must collaborate to create equitable workforce development programs and expand access to computer science education, ensuring the digital economy reflects the diversity of the communities it serves.
Intellectual Property
Strong copyright and intellectual property (IP) protections are essential for small app developers to safeguard their innovations, attract investment, and maintain consumer trust. Software applications are protected as literary works under copyright law, giving developers control over the use and distribution of their creations. However, challenges like software piracy and counterfeiting threaten small businesses by causing revenue loss and eroding user confidence.
Member Ask: Global policymakers must strengthen IP and copyright frameworks to protect developers’ rights and support accessible enforcement for small businesses. Laws should evolve with technology and promote international cooperation to combat cross-border infringement. Strong protections will ensure small innovators can thrive and continue driving digital innovation.
Clearing Customs for a Digital Future
Small businesses are the backbone of innovation, driving job creation and economic growth in the digital age. Just as a passport enables global movement, thoughtful, future-focused policies open doors for small innovators to thrive. Overly broad or burdensome regulations risk stalling this progress, while balanced, forward-thinking approaches can unlock opportunities and improve lives worldwide.
We remain committed to working with leaders worldwide to advance these priorities and champion the needs of independent developers and small businesses. By adopting balanced, forward-thinking regulations, global leaders have the power to ensure the continued success of the worldwide app economy, fuel innovation, and create a more connected, competitive future for all.
As policymakers in the European Union, United Kingdom, and United States each chart their own course to address these pressing issues, our members are raising their voices to share what they need to succeed. Stay tuned as we dive deeper into these priorities, highlighting how a thoughtful policy approach can pave the way for innovation to thrive worldwide.