Apple And Google Push States To Shield App Stores From Some Lawsuits

Google and Apple lobbyists are engaged in a massive effort to press state lawmakers to adopt kids’ online safety laws that would shield the tech giants from some lawsuits tied to age-verification requirements, POLITICO has learned.

The scale and scope of the ambitious push, which has not been previously reported, is outlined in draft legislation, internal emails and interviews with seven people with knowledge of the effort, some of whom were granted anonymity to discuss details of private conversations. A virtual stalemate on kids’ online safety in Washington has pushed these tech behemoths to focus their efforts on state houses around the country.

The lobbying battle is unfolding as Big Tech faces hundreds of lawsuits from individuals who say they or their children were harmed by the platforms’ design. Meanwhile, states are passing age-verification laws, opening the door for additional lawsuits against the tech companies.

But it’s the proposals from Apple and Google that are getting pushback from some corners of the tech safety community.

“What they’re putting out there are basically phantom child safety legislation bills that have no real teeth,” one child safety advocate involved in the discussions said of Google and Apple.

In the states, the tech titans are running headlong into a competing lobbying effort by Meta, which is urging lawmakers to support legislation that would require app stores, rather than platforms, verify users’ ages to ensure minors do not see age-inappropriate content online.

The larger fight centers on the App Store Accountability Act, which would require app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent before minors can download apps or make purchases and assume substantial legal liability.

As versions of the ASAA were introduced in state legislatures in Georgia, Arizona and Kansas earlier this year, lobbyists representing Google and Apple pitched alternative bill text to lawmakers that would bar private lawsuits and leave enforcement to state attorneys general.

An Apple spokesperson said the company is “committed to protecting children online while also maintaining our long-standing commitment to protecting privacy.” The company supports kids’ safety legislation and continues to engage on it, the spokesperson said, but added that some proposals would do more to protect privacy than others. Some would require anyone seeking to download an app to provide sensitive personal information, the spokesperson said.

“We are committed to empowering parents, protecting privacy, and keeping young people safe online, and we welcome sensible legislation that furthers those goals,” Kareem Ghanem, Google’s senior director of government affairs and public policy, said in a statement. “Certain other platforms are more focused on putting forward proposals that shift responsibility away from themselves and force app stores to give children’s personal data to third-party apps.”

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement that the company will support legislation that requires app stores to verify the age of the user, arguing that “parents shouldn't have to navigate differing burdensome requirements across multiple apps.”

In Arizona, three days after a version of the ASAA was introduced by state Rep. Michael Way (R) on Jan. 27, a lobbyist who said he was working with Google and Apple began circulating an alternative bill among lawmakers’ staff and outside groups dubbed the Mobile Ecosystem Responsibility Act, or MERA, according to an email and draft legislation reviewed by POLITICO.

“The Attorney General shall have exclusive authority to enforce” the law, the draft bill text reads. It also specified that nothing in the bill “shall be interpreted to serve as the basis for a private right of action,” a legal rule that allows individuals to file lawsuits.

Following a series of meetings between kids’ safety advocates, tech company representatives and lawmakers in Arizona, the Google lobbyist presented new bill text in mid-February to leadership staff in the Arizona House that was modeled on California’s age-verification law, the Digital Age Assurance Act. The DAAA requires operating system providers, like Apple and Google, to collect users’ age when they set up their account.

California’s DAAA also only allows the state attorney general to bring civil penalties against the operating systems, like Google and Apple, and received widespread industry support.

In Georgia, when the ASAA was considered in a hearing before a Georgia State Senate committee on Feb. 17, another state lobbyist representing Google contacted a senator on the committee, offering a bill that was nearly identical to MERA, according to an email and draft bill text POLITICO reviewed.

It also included a provision that would bar individuals, but not the state attorney general, from suing under the law.

Apple’s campaign for a legal shield continued in Kansas.

In January, Republican state Sen. Kellie Warren introduced a bill modeled after the ASAA.

In February, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, a group that represents business interests and represented Apple, suggested alterations to the bill that would bar individuals from suing app stores under the law, instead leaving all legal actions to the state attorney general.

In conversations with lawmakers, meanwhile, lobbyists for Apple raised concerns over who would ultimately be held liable under Kansas’ age verification law and repeatedly tried to shift some responsibility to app developers, two people involved in the talks said.

The Kansas Chamber of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment.

Arizona, Georgia and Kansas’ legislative sessions ended without a governor’s signature on an age-verification bill.

Tech companies are under increasing legal scrutiny: Thousands of lawsuits, many of which are being brought by individuals, claim their platforms were designed to intentionally addict young users which, in turn, negatively impacted their mental health.

If app store providers like Apple or Google, who have positioned themselves against the ASAA, violate the provisions it lays out, they could be held liable and face civil penalties.

Social media companies, like Meta, have been supportive of the legislation, advocates say, partly because it shifts liability around age verification to app stores rather than the platforms themselves.

Lobbyists representing Meta approached state Sen. Bill Cowsert, Georgia’s ASAA lead sponsor, to offer any assistance they could to garner support for the bill, he said. They proffered talking points and background information to help him make the case for the bill to other lawmakers, he said.

State attorneys general have emerged as a formidable force in bringing litigation against tech companies. In a case brought by New Mexico’s Department of Justice, a state judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million on top of a $375 million jury verdict that found the company liable for endangering children.

47 states settled a separate case against Meta last month for $17 billion and secured key platform changes that they say will make the platforms safer for kids.

Versions of the ASAA, which is broadly supported by child online safety advocates, has passed in Utah, Texas, Louisiana and Alabama. But it has faced lawsuits from some tech industry groups who allege that it restricts minors’ First Amendment rights by putting apps that enable free expression behind a wall of parental approval.

Some ASAA provisions, including those codified in Utah, allow individuals to sue app store providers for violations of the law.

The bills pitched by Google and Apple representatives also largely rely on users self-attesting their age — something that child safety advocates say can be circumvented if minors misrepresent their birth dates.

The ASAA, meanwhile, requires app stores to use commercially available methods to verify users’ ages, like the types of apps they download. This has faced pushback from some privacy-minded lawmakers and organizations who say doing so could compromise minors’ information online.

Other age verification proposals have been introduced on Capitol Hill. The Parents Over Platforms Act — led by Reps. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) and Erin Houchin (R-Ind.) — would require app stores and platforms to verify users’ ages and require parental consent to download apps deemed unsuitable for minors. Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) has also brought a bill mirroring California’s DAAA to Congress.