Following an investigation launched in June 2020, the European Commission preliminarily considers that Apple is abusing its dominant position by not allowing third-party services to use NFC technology on mobile devices under iOS/iPadOS, leaving it exclusively available to Apple. Pay.
In this way, neither Paypal, nor Google Pay, nor other financial services have contactless payments through NFC on iPhone and iPad, something that is possible in the ecosystem of Android devices with integrated NFC.
Fight between Apple and the EC over NFC
From the European Commission they understand that it is not a technical limitation, and in case of definitively concluding that it is an illegal maneuver, according to the rules of competition, the company with the bitten apple could face a significant fine.
According to the European Commission:
Mobile payments play a rapidly growing role in our digital economy. It is important for the integration of European payment markets that consumers benefit from a competitive and innovative payment landscape.
This conflict of interest is even greater at a time when users often make a greater use of their mobile phones as a payment tool, with NFC technology being the easiest and most widely accepted in Europe.
For the European Commission:
iPhones, iPads, and Apple software form a “closed ecosystem.” Apple controls all aspects of the user experience in this ecosystem, including access for mobile wallet developers.
The funny thing is that Apple sees no problem understanding that Apple Pay is one of the many options availableand which they can use their cards and financial resources from other institutions.
They point out that there is equal access to NFC technology to allow users to choose the payment method, and that in the case of Europe, Apple currently collaborates with some 2,500 banks and 14 payment networks.
From the point of view of the European Commission:
Apple does not make it available to developers of third-party mobile wallet applications. Touch-and-go NFC technology is built into Apple mobile devices for in-store payments.
More information: European Commission
