US lawmakers take aim at Apple and Google over their app stores   

Member of the US House of Representatives have introduced a bill aimed at reining in the power of the app stores of tech giants Apple and Google, among others. 

A Republican and a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives introduced a bill aimed at reining in powerful app stores run by companies like Apple and Google.

The bill is a companion to a measure introduced this week by a bipartisan trio of senators which would bar big app stores from requiring app providers to use alternate app stores and payment systems.

Representative Ken Buck, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee antitrust panel, introduced the measure along with Representative Hank Johnson, a Democrat. "For far too long, companies like Google and Apple have had a stranglehold on app developers who are forced to take whatever terms these monopolists set in order to reach their customers," Mr Buck said. 

Apple has previously defended its app store as "an unprecedented engine of economic growth and innovation, one that now supports more than 2.1 million jobs across all 50 [US] states".

The stakes are high for Apple, whose App Store anchors its $53.8bn services business as the smartphone market has matured. Google has said that Android phones often have two or more app stores preloaded. The House Judiciary Committee passed six competition measures in June, most of them aimed at hemming in tech giants Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook. 

• Reuters