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>> Welcome back to KPRC 2.
Plus, have you ever wondered
why you cannot manage the same
account in many popular apps for why subscriptions and fees
for why subscriptions and fees
are some times higher while
purchasing through an app.
>> Rather than on website.
But one reason could be that
app tax. Joining us this
morning to talk about it is
Rick Vanmeter from the Coalition for App Fairness.
Coalition for App Fairness.
Rick, Good morning. How are
you doing?
>> Well, thank you so much for
having me. Thanks for being a
job. I at least an hour both
looking at each other like the app tax. Yeah, we know there’s
app tax. Yeah, we know there’s
a ton of taxes, but which one
is this? What’s the story?
>> Well, this is really a hidden fee that is imposed by
hidden fee that is imposed by
Apple and through that. The app
Store and the Google Play
store respectively. The most
people don’t realize that their pain when you subscribe to
pain when you subscribe to
digital services like music
streaming apps for a dating app
or making purchases within a many of those purchases are
many of those purchases are
subject to a fee of up to 30%.
So this is a fee real cost of
people and that many don’t
realize that they’re paying.
>> So us, how do you get around this? What’s the fix here at
this? What’s the fix here at
what needs to be done to fix
that marketplace?
>> There’s a lot of things
that, first of all, I would just recommend to your viewers
just recommend to your viewers
they may be good consumer.
So, you know, this is a time of
high inflation you folks really
need to make sure that they’re
getting the best price for the services that they want.
services that they want.
So one way around this is to
check on the website from the
for the service that you want.
And it’s very convenient to just click subscribe on in
just click subscribe on in
half. But many times you can
avoid this fee if you just
subscribe to the service on the
on the website on the desktop or laptop computer, not on your
or laptop computer, not on your
smartphone or tablet. Another
thing that really needs to
happen to fix out marketplaces
for Congress to pass a bill
called the Open App Markets
Act is a very bipartisan Your
Senator Ted Cruz actually was
among 20 Republicans and
Democrats that voted to advance
this bill in the Senate
Judiciary Committee does a lot
of momentum and this one really
address many of the challenges
in our marketplace, but help bring down prices and create
bring down prices and create
new innovation for for
consumers. Is this is this like
the crux of what we’ve heard
fighting between an app store
and a developer? >> Over who’s making money from
>> Over who’s making money from
what are these fees? Part of
that argument or
>> and in somewhat related to
that? Yes, there are. There are
various more lawsuits going on between developers and these
between developers and these
companies. But really, what
we’re seeing is that antitrust
laws need to be updated.
And that’s why we’re supporting
this bill in Again, you know, really what we’re asking for
really what we’re asking for
are not saying what the fee
should be or not be, but really
there should be constant
competition and there should be
transparency. And I think when you have that in the digital
you have that in the digital
marketplace, just like in any
industry will help bring down
prices and create a better
quality products for consumers.
competition and transparency will go a long way to creating
will go a long way to creating
a better digital marketplace
for app users.
>> It sounds like of this
proposal they are describing
has bipartisan support. Who do you anticipate is going to
you anticipate is going to
fight you guys on this?
>> Apple and Google don’t like
this proposal because they they
would prefer not have any competition in this market and
competition in this market and
to be able to continue to
impose this 30%. The on
developers that is ultimately paid by consumers. But again,
paid by consumers. But again,
this bill is very broad,
bipartisan support. We did some
polling recently. We found that
around 80%
voters you can support the bill and they would think better
and they would think better
of their representatives in
Congress that they So we have
very conservative members of
the Senate, including again, Ted Cruz. We also have very
Ted Cruz. We also have very
liberal and progressive members
find any Klobuchar are
enriching. Richard Blumenthal
who support this bill. So this
is very broad bipartisan support and we’re hoping they
support and we’re hoping they
can get done even in a very
partisan time. Washington.
>> All right. Rick Vanmeter