South Korea’s National Assembly passed a law preventing large app-market purchase requirements on behalf of large market operators in the region.
The global bill serves as the first of its kind to ban large market operators from requiring their app for users to engage in the product’s purchasing systems.
Operators will also be prohibited from carrying out unwarranted delays to approving apps or deleting them from the marketplace. Failure to comply can result in a fine worth 3% of South Korea’s revenue.
California-based Apple has generated $53.8 billion of its $274.5 billion revenue from its apps, while Alphabet reported $182.5 billion in revenue globally last year, and Google Play counted $21.7 billion of total app revenue.
Last month, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) stood alongside co-sponsor Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), to address the large revenue loss and illogical payment systems posed against app developers upon releasing their creation to the market alongside the likes of Google and Apple.
“This is a significant step forward for the creation of a fairer app ecosystem,” Kwon Se-hwa, general manager of Korea Internet Corporations Association, said.
Google Play store currently accounts for 75% of all mobile-app downloads, while Apple makes up 65%, according to the mobile-app analytics firm, App Annie.
Also making an effort to limit the conglomerates’ power in the market, European officials recently passed bills targeting illegal content and other anticompetitive behavior in hopes of giving smaller players a fair chance against large tech companies, such as Facebook.
“As bills with similar implications are being proposed in the U.S. and Europe, South Korea’s bill will become a cornerstone for legislating app market platform regulations worldwide,” commission Chairman Han Sang-hyuk said.