Balancing big tech and SMEs: the DMCC’s role in the UK
The UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (DMCC) was introduced earlier this year in an effort to regulate digital markets and safeguard consumers. The bill, currently under review by the UK House of Commons, mainly targets large corporations deemed to be ‘big tech’ with a strategic market status (SMS) designation. Although the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that make up ACT | The App Association’s membership are unlikely to receive an SMS designation, their success is closely linked to [...]
ComMission Creep: 2022 and 2023 at the FTC and What it Means for Small Business
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been on a tear. The court losses that punctuate its campaign make it hard to call it a winning streak, but the concerted efforts to reinvigorate the Commission’s “national nanny” status will leave plenty of marks for years to come. Notably, the FTC’s struggle against the private sector cuts across both of its major bureaus—the Competition Bureau and the Consumer Protection Bureau—and avails itself of all the tools within and legally beyond its reach, [...]
App Makers Need Copyright and IP Protections
On July 18, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing debating the so-called “right to repair” for devices like smartphones and tablets as well as larger machinery like cars and tractors. The hearing displayed a limited set of views on whether federal law should create an exception to copyright protections for repair purposes. For small businesses, like the member companies of ACT | The App Association (the App Association), federal mandates to allow open access to otherwise protected software involves [...]
ACT Presentation_Video_Japan
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Lost in the Consumer Protection Forest: The Case for Cracking One Nut at a Time
ACT | The App Association has been calling for “The Year of Privacy” since at least 2017, with the hopes that lawmakers in the United States would pass a national privacy law to protect people of all ages who use technology. Despite the fact that we have yet to see a federal privacy law pass in the United States, we have seen a global response to our privacy call with the implementation of a wide range of proposals that [...]