Throughout the year, our policy team submits filings with government bodies worldwide to advocate for a regulatory environment that inspires and rewards innovation. From issues around regulating artificial intelligence to digital trade, our team is ACTive on a wide range of topics that could have a positive or negative impact on our small business members driving the app economy. Below is a roundup of our filings from around the globe this past month.
Entity: Ofcom
Jurisdiction: United Kingdom
Summary: ACT responded to Ofcom’s call for evidence for its statutorily required reports on age assurance and app stores, stating that ACT members are concerned that policies requiring age assurance at the app store level with follow-on obligations for individual apps will have problematic implications for both user privacy and cost. ACT cautioned against applying policies drafted with online harms specific to social media in mind to the broader app ecosystem.
Filed: December 1, 2025
—
Entity: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Jurisdiction: United States
Summary: ACT submitted comments to USPTO in response to its proposed rulemaking proposing changes to the inter partes review (IPR) process at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). ACT argued that the rulemaking would effectively dismantle the IPR system as a meaningful check on patent quality. By creating insurmountable barriers to filing IPR challenges, the proposed changes would primarily benefit patent trolls and harm small business innovators.
Filed: December 2, 2025
—
Entity: House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade
Jurisdiction: United States
Summary: ACT submitted a statement for the record in the House Energy and Commerce hearing “Legislative Solutions to Protecting Children and Teens Online.” The statement argued that, while small businesses want to help keep kids safe on the internet, they need a way to do so that doesn’t require them to be forced to collect, process, and store large amounts of sensitive user information. ACT urged the Committee to pursue proposals with a better balance, such as the Parents Over Platforms Act.
Filed: December 2, 2025
—
Entity: European Commission, European Data Protection Board
Jurisdiction: European Union
Summary: ACT provided feedback to the European Commission and European Data Protection Board in response to their consultation on new guidelines regarding the interaction of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). ACT stated that clarity on the interplay between these laws is welcome and supports efforts to create a safe, transparent, and pro-privacy digital environment. ACT argued that the guidance could go even further, providing clarity on how interoperability obligations and other requirements interact with these and other laws.
Filed: December 4, 2025
—
Entity: House of Representatives, Committee on Small Business
Jurisdiction: United States
Summary: ACT provided written testimony to the Small Business Committee for its hearing titled, “Main Street Under Attack: The Cost of Crime on Small Business.” ACT’s testimony focused on four points: that cybercrime costs business millions each year and disproportionately target small businesses; that Congress should reauthorize and update the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015; that small businesses can provide important services to government agencies in the fight against cybercrime; and that federal policies should continue to promote the use of technical protection measures like end-to-end encryption.
Filed: December 8, 2025
—
Entity: House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Jurisdiction: United States
Summary: ACT submitted a statement for the record to the House Antitrust Subcommittee for its hearing titled, “Anti-American Antitrust: How Foreign Governments Target U.S. Businesses.” ACT’s statement discussed the impact of the DMA on businesses and innovation both within the EU and abroad. ACT highlighted the particularly acute effects on small businesses, who lack the resources to absorb regulatory uncertainty, compliance costs, and degraded platform functionality.
Filed: December 15, 2025
—
Title: Feedback of ACT | The App Association to the European Commission regarding the EU Quantum Act
Entity: European Commission
Jurisdiction: European Union
Summary: ACT provided feedback to the European Commission regarding the EU Quantum Act. ACT urged the Commission to provide a framework that accounts for the indispensable role of small businesses in driving innovation. Achieving the vision of a “quantum continent” will require supporting a skilled workforce, ensuring access to quantum infrastructure, robust internationally aligned standardization, and strong pathways to commercialization.
Filed: December 15, 2025
—
Title: Letter to Competition and Markets Authority regarding Mobile Ecosystem SMS designations and roadmaps
Entity: Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
Jurisdiction: United Kingdom
Summary: Sixteen ACT member companies sent a letter to CMA in response to its request for feedback on its Mobile Ecosystem SMS designations and roadmaps. The letter urged CMA to refrain from implementing measures, such as mandated sideloading, third-party app store catalog sharing, or DMA-style regulations, and instead ensure that any interventions preserve consumer security and privacy and developers’ ability to reach users through trusted distribution channels.
Filed: December 22, 2025