Brightline Rules and Case-by-Case Courts: The DMA and Epic v Apple
Brightline rules promise clarity. The early enforcement record suggests something closer to friction.
Part I of this two-part series examined how mobile app-store anti-steering policies—rules that restrict developers from directing users to alternative offers or payment portals outside the app store—affect competition, consumers, and innovation. It also compared those policies with the restrictions upheld in Ohio v. American Express Co., in which the U.S. Supreme Court approved American Express’ anti-steering rules in a multisided credit-card transactions market.
Part II turns to enforcement. It compares how Apple’s App Store anti-steering policies and transaction fees have been treated in the Europe Union under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and in the United States under federal and state antitrust law. The analysis focuses on what those divergent approaches have delivered so far for competition, commercial and legal certainty, enforcement costs, and the rule of law. Taken together, the early results raise serious questions about whether U.S. policymakers should continue pressing to import DMA-style ex ante regulation into American competition policy.