Nine mobile app companies launching a new trade group

Bloomberg reports nine mobile app companies are launching a new trade group “to weigh in on the nation’s most controversial tech policy issues, banding together to assert heir independence” from Apple and Alphabet’s Google.

Priceline, OpenTable, Kayak, and Perry Street Software are among the founding members of the App Coalition. It’s main trade group competition is ACT-The App Association, which weighs in on policy issues affecting developers, but also counts Apple and Microsoft as sponsors, according to its website.

According to Bloomberg, the App Coalition is committed to protecting apps from data-gathering by “platform companies” (app stores such as the Apple App Store), and wants “a market free from control by artificial barriers, such as those created by gatekeepers” (again, app stores).

Politico adds that the App Coalition will be led by Gregory Guice, a lobbyist at the firm of McGuireWoods Consulting. The article says that one of The App Coalition’s first priorities is convincing the Congress to include language in the next coronavirus relief bill allowing startups to receive small business loans even if larger investors hold stakes in them.