This week, ACT | The App Association filed an amicus brief to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the motion by Google urging the court to stay the injunction pending an appeal. The App Association filed the brief following the decision made by the district court issuing a permanent injunction that would upend the nature of the app ecosystem and the wider small business developer community that leverages Google Play to compete and innovate. 

“The district court’s injunction would make significant changes to the app ecosystem small businesses rely on,” said Morgan Reed, President of ACT | The App Association. “As it stands, the injunction treats apps like mere inventory, plugging them into third-party stores they’ve had no prior relationship with and leaving it up to developers to sort out payment, security, and other issues. Courts should not use small businesses as beta testers on a project with major design flaws, particularly as the appeals process plays out.”

The changes to Google Play that the injunction requires would lead to significant costs for the thousands of small and mid-sized developers that use the app store and would abruptly place them under a quasi-contractual relationship with an unknown number of third-party app stores with which they have had no prior contact. 

It is essential that the court stay the injunction during the appeals process. The App Association outlines specific complications arising from the remedies offered by the court in the amicus brief and will continue to advocate for other solutions that work for small businesses throughout the appeals process. 

Read the full brief here.

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About ACT | The App Association & Members

The App Association is a global trade association for small and medium-sized technology companies. Our members are entrepreneurs, innovators, and independent developers within the global app ecosystem that engage with verticals across every industry. We work with and for our members to promote a policy environment that rewards and inspires innovation while providing resources that help them raise capital, create jobs, and continue to build incredible technology.