5 Minutes
The fight lasted barely a month. That was enough.
A California proposal aimed at loosening Apple and Google’s grip on mobile app discovery collapsed after an aggressive lobbying campaign, underscoring how quickly Silicon Valley’s biggest platforms can move when lawmakers threaten the rules of their digital marketplaces.
The bill, sponsored by California state Senator Scott Wiener, targeted a familiar complaint from app developers: when users search or browse in the App Store or Google Play, platform owners can give their own apps and services a better shot at visibility. The proposed measure, known as the Based Act, sought to stop that kind of self-preferencing and give smaller competitors a fairer chance to be found.
On paper, it had a natural constituency. Startup accelerator Y Combinator backed the effort alongside smaller tech firms and consumer advocacy groups. Their argument was simple enough: if Apple and Google control the shelves, they should not also get to quietly rearrange the best spots for themselves.
When the lobbying machine switched on
The opposition arrived fast. According to Bloomberg, the Chamber of Progress, a tech industry coalition funded by Apple, Google and other major companies, issued a statement against the bill while Wiener was still introducing it on March 18. That set the tone for what followed.
Lobbyists pushed constituent calls into lawmakers’ offices. Ads warned that the bill could make search results less useful, deliveries slower and smartphones less secure. Trade groups lined up against the proposal, including the California Chamber of Commerce and several technology industry organizations.
Wiener described the campaign as a “tidal wave lobbying effort” and accused opponents of flooding the Capitol with misinformation. Supporters of the bill tried to counter the messaging, but they were outgunned by a coalition with deep pockets, established relationships and a very clear objective: kill the bill before it gathered momentum.
Apple also sent senior people into the fight. Tim Powderly, the company’s senior director of government affairs, wrote to California lawmakers comparing the proposal to Europe’s Digital Markets Act. His warning was familiar to anyone who has watched Big Tech respond to regulation in recent years: compliance would drain time and resources away from building new products.
That argument landed. After passing one committee the previous week, the bill failed on April 20 in a tech policy committee focused on privacy.
The money behind the message
For Apple and Google, the stakes were larger than one California bill. Any rule limiting how they present their own services inside app stores could ripple into search, subscriptions, payments, maps, messaging and other core parts of the mobile ecosystem. A win for lawmakers in Sacramento might have encouraged similar efforts elsewhere.
Ben Golombek of the California Chamber of Commerce called the bill’s defeat a “true team effort” and thanked lawmakers who voted against it. He also warned allies to stay alert, describing Wiener as relentless and suggesting the proposal could return in another form.
Wiener gave every indication that the issue is not dead. His message was short: stay tuned.
None of this happened in a vacuum. Apple has become a heavyweight political spender as antitrust scrutiny, app store rules and platform regulation move from specialist policy circles into mainstream politics. In the United States, Apple reportedly spent about €8.8 million on lobbying in 2025, a company record and roughly 27.9% higher than the year before.
The same pattern is visible in Europe. Apple spent €7 million lobbying EU institutions over a one-year period, matching the reported EU lobbying spend of Microsoft and Amazon. Meta spent more, at €10 million.
This is not the first time Apple and other technology giants have leaned hard on lawmakers when app store rules or platform liability were on the table. In 2024, lobbyists pressured officials over a child online safety bill, using similar tactics: persistent outreach, intense messaging and the shadow of possible legal challenges if certain App Store-related provisions survived.
The California episode shows how difficult it remains to regulate the companies that sit between developers and billions of users. App store reform may be politically popular in theory, especially among startups and consumer groups. But once the ads start running, the calls begin landing and industry groups crowd the corridors, theory meets the machinery of influence.
For now, Apple and Google keep their California app store playbook intact. The broader fight over platform power is still very much alive.
Source: appleinsider
Comments
Armin
This is wild, feels like David vs Goliath but with lobbyists buying the slings. Sad, not surprised. If Wiener pushes again, we gotta mobilize...
datapulse
Wait, they actually shut the bill down that quick? Sounds like classic big tech pressure, but can lawmakers really be swayed that fast... skeptical tbh
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