ACTivists for Change: An Open Letter to Policymakers in the European Union
Letter Summary In this letter, ACT | The App Association and a sampling of our European Union (EU)-based member companies urge EU policymakers to adopt forward-thinking, balanced regulatory frameworks that empower small businesses to thrive while addressing emerging risks. Our members are at the forefront of innovation across industries, but they face significant barriers due to fragmented regulations, licensing abuses, and a lack of intentional guidelines. We call on policymakers to prioritise fairness, scalability, and innovation in their actions [...]
ACTivists for Change: An Open Letter to Policymakers in the United States
ACT | The App Association and a sampling of our U.S.-based member companies urge U.S. policymakers to ensure that the regulatory environment empowers small businesses to thrive while addressing emerging risks. Our members are at the forefront of innovation that spans industries, however, they face significant barriers due to overregulation of emerging technologies, patent licensing abuses, and a lack of consistency across jurisdictions where they do business. We call on policymakers to ensure that small businesses and independent developers [...]
ACTivists for Change: An Open Letter to Policymakers in the United Kingdom
ACT | The App Association and a sampling of our United Kingdom (UK)-based member companies urge UK policymakers to adopt forward-thinking, balanced regulatory frameworks that empower small businesses to thrive while addressing emerging risks. Our members are at the forefront of innovation across industries, but they face significant barriers due to fragmented regulations, licensing abuses, and a lack of intentional guidelines. We call on policymakers to prioritise fairness, scalability, and innovation in their actions to ensure that small businesses [...]
Breaking Encryption Will Break More Than Privacy
In February 2025, it was reported that the United Kingdom (UK) Office of the Home Secretary served Apple with a technical capability notice (TCN), a secret legal order demanding that the company build a backdoor that enables access to content Apple users have uploaded to the cloud. The UK issued the notice under the UK Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, which enables its law enforcement and intelligence agencies to obtain consumers’ data from technology companies in the course of [...]
The European Commission’s 2025 Work Programme: A Mixed Bag for SMEs
The European Commission has just released its 2025 Work Programme, outlining key initiatives to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness and drive regulatory simplification. For independent app developers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), these changes could ease regulatory burdens, but some proposals raise concerns. ACT | The App Association strongly supports many of these initiatives, which align with our mission to foster innovation while ensuring a business-friendly environment. While the programme offers SMEs a lot of hope and support, one potential [...]