A new trade group called The App Coalition consists of companies that were formerly part of The App Association, which Apple sponsors. Members have split away from the association.
The App Coalition
The coalition, which includes companies like Priceline, OpenTable, Kayak and Perry Street Software, called on Congress Wednesday to make sure that startups and their apps have access to the Paycheck Protection Program to help small business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
McGuireWoods Consulting LLC is the lobbying firm behind the coalition. Senior advisor Michael Drobac told Bloomberg:
The difference between our group and that group is that they’re funded by Apple, Microsoft and a host of other large technology and platform companies. We hope we have the same agenda and we look forward to working with them. That’s not where the funding for this is going to come from.
Privacy and content moderation are also policy issues the coalition includes on its platform. It plans to support laws that define what kind of data can be collected from users and how it can be used, and “its long-term focus is on creating “a market free from control by artificial barriers, such as those created by gatekeepers.“”
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