SAN FRANCISCO—Yesterday, NetChoice filed two briefs with Chamber of Progress in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, asking the court to stop a ruling from a lower court that would harm both the app ecosystem and consumers broadly.
American antitrust law is not designed to penalize success or help the government’s preferred competitors. It focuses on practices that demonstrably harm consumers. The lower court in this case issued a misguided ruling that would force Google to weaken its app store’s security protections, host its competitors in its store, open its entire app catalog up to its competitors, and prevent it from making standard business deals with other companies— an unprecedented change that would be harmful to customers. NetChoice firmly opposes the court’s transformation of antitrust law into a “rivals-protection racket.”
“America’s antitrust laws are designed to protect American consumers–not corporate competitors. And the current app ecosystem is fiercely competitive. That competition has served Americans well by fostering a market with millions of apps to choose from,” said Paul Taske, NetChoice Associate Director of Litigation. “Rather than bless an injunction that would upend a vibrant marketplace, the Ninth Circuit should preserve the status quo as the case proceeds on appeal.”
Our briefs to the court make 3 key points:
- The app ecosystem is vibrant, competitive and healthy;
- The district court’s order threatens to undermine the existing ecosystem, and the District Court even acknowledged that its injunction would “reduce competition”; and
- An injunction is crucial to preserve this existing, fierce competition in the app ecosystem as the case proceeds on appeal.
You can find NetChoice’s briefs with Chamber of Progress here and here.
Please contact press@netchoice.org with inquiries.