EU Apple Pay antitrust action is complete, after NFC opened to competitors

AppleInsider

The European Union has formally accepted Apple's response to its antitrust concerns over Apple Pay, and iPhones will now allow rival firms to use the technology.

Apple is opening up its NFC APIs to rivals in the EU

The EU had threatened Apple with fines of up to $40 billion for how it reserved iPhone NFC technology solely for its own Apple Pay. Apple agreed to open it up to rivals within the EU, but it has taken some months for the regulators to accept the details.

The EU says that the time was spent testing Apple's commitments, and consulting with rivals over them. After some adjustments, the EU has now accepted Apple's commitments, and is making them legally binding for the next ten years.

"Apple has committed to allow rivals to access the 'tap and go' technology of iPhones," said antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, in a statement. "Today's decision makes Apple' commitments binding. It opens up competition in this crucial sector, by preventing Apple from excluding other mobile wallets from the iPhone's ecosystem."

The EU's visual description of what its changes mean to customers

"From now on, competitors will be able to effectively compete with Apple Pay for mobile payments with the iPhone in shops," she considered. "So consumers will have a wider range of safe and innovative mobile wallets to choose from."

Broadly, Apple's revised commitments to the EU include:

• Supporting Host Card Emulation (HCE) payment credentials stored online instead of on the phone


• Removing a requirement for developers to be licensed Payment Service Providers


• Allowing developers to prompt users to change their default payment app


• Shorten deadlines for resolving disputes

In short, iPhone users in the EU will be able to replace Apple Pay and Apple's Wallet with offerings from other firms. In May 2024, the London-based digital wallet firm Curve said that it was only waiting for the EU to resolve final technical details before launching its alternative payment system on iPhones Europe-wide.



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blitz1

Europe 4 (or is it more) - Apple 0

mizhou

“In short, iPhone users in the EU will be able to replace Apple Pay and Apple's Wallet with offerings from other firms.”

I don’t think so. What EU has done is open up the possibility for other companies to create their own wallets. Pretend that this was in the USA, and Walmart created their own wallet, and MacDonalds their own etc. 

That hasn’t created a freedom for me as a customer to choose a wallet. Instead they will have to have a Walmart wallet, a MacDonalds wallet etc in addition to Apple Wallet. I’m enforced to use several different wallets. In theory I will have to have a wallet app for wvery store I shop in. This is a freedom for the companies to create their own wallets, and I will have to use multiple wallets, NOT a freedom for me to choose one wallet that I can use everywhere. 

The EU politicians have absolutely no clue what they’ve done. They’ve created a mess, not freedom for consumers. 

cropr

blitz1 said:

Europe 4 (or is it more) - Apple 0

I don't consider this a loss for Apple.  It is a little bit like the USB-C standard for an iPhone.   Apple was waiting for a valid excuse to offer it.  

The fact that Apple did not allow banks to offer their own NFC based payments, had some nasty consequences.  I worked as a consultant in a bank where it unofficially was advised to customers to use the Android version of the banking app, because the iOS version was somewhat "crippled".

avon b7

mizhou said:

“In short, iPhone users in the EU will be able to replace Apple Pay and Apple's Wallet with offerings from other firms.”

I don’t think so. What EU has done is open up the possibility for other companies to create their own wallets. Pretend that this was in the USA, and Walmart created their own wallet, and MacDonalds their own etc. 

That hasn’t created a freedom for me as a customer to choose a wallet. Instead they will have to have a Walmart wallet, a MacDonalds wallet etc in addition to Apple Wallet. I’m enforced to use several different wallets. In theory I will have to have a wallet app for wvery store I shop in. This is a freedom for the companies to create their own wallets, and I will have to use multiple wallets, NOT a freedom for me to choose one wallet that I can use everywhere. 

The EU politicians have absolutely no clue what they’ve done. They’ve created a mess, not freedom for consumers. 

So why hasn't that situation arisen on Android where alternative wallet/payment systems have existed for a long time? 

It's freedom of choice.

You decide. All McDonald's wants is your money. Put your card onto Apple Wallet/Pay and see if McDonald's rejects it. 

beowulfschmidt

AppleInsider said:

The EU says that the time was spent testing Apple's commitments, and consulting with rivals over them.

Translation, "we've consulted with the people bribing us properly to see if they're happy with the changes."

teejay2012

I am not looking for more apps asking for access to my financial information. Given how uninformed my own bank is on any technical issues, I would hardly trust them with NFC. I trust Apple and I like the convenience of Apple Pay. Consumers will vote of course but the banks and other vendors will need to buy the votes as they won't win on security or convenience imo.

avon b7

teejay2012 said:

I am not looking for more apps asking for access to my financial information. Given how uninformed my own bank is on any technical issues, I would hardly trust them with NFC. I trust Apple and I like the convenience of Apple Pay. Consumers will vote of course but the banks and other vendors will need to buy the votes as they won't win on security or convenience imo.

Consumers will vote with their wallets 

The reality is we are more likely to see banks that already have Wallet/Payment systems on Android moving to iPhones. 

If they haven't had security issues on Android, their is little to no reason to believe they will have issues on iPhones. 

cropr

teejay2012 said:

I am not looking for more apps asking for access to my financial information. Given how uninformed my own bank is on any technical issues, I would hardly trust them with NFC. I trust Apple and I like the convenience of Apple Pay. Consumers will vote of course but the banks and other vendors will need to buy the votes as they won't win on security or convenience imo.

For me it is exactly the opposite.  

I have a very close relationship with my local bank manager who lives just around the corner and who is easily accesible whenever I need him.   I am getting a personalized service and the bank itself has won several awards with its outstanding app proving its deep knowledge of the tech world.  (see https://newsroom.kbc.com/kbc-mobile-est-elue-pour-la-troisieme-fois-daffilee-meilleure-app-bancaire-mobile-de-belgique-par-le-bureau-detudes-international-independant-sia-partners#)

I do not trust Apple for my financials:  it is a foereign company, the nearest Apple Store is 2 hours driving and I don't get a presonalized service, and it does not support Android (which half of my family is using).   On top of that I don't like vertical integration: Apple is great for its hardware, but I don't want to be locked in in the Apple ecosystem for something like my financials, Apple has no business with my bank account details.

mike1

cropr said:

teejay2012 said:

I am not looking for more apps asking for access to my financial information. Given how uninformed my own bank is on any technical issues, I would hardly trust them with NFC. I trust Apple and I like the convenience of Apple Pay. Consumers will vote of course but the banks and other vendors will need to buy the votes as they won't win on security or convenience imo.

For me it is exactly the opposite.  

I have a very close relationship with my local bank manager who lives just around the corner and who is easily accesible whenever I need him.   I am getting a personalized service and the bank itself has won several awards with its outstanding app proving its deep knowledge of the tech world.  (see https://newsroom.kbc.com/kbc-mobile-est-elue-pour-la-troisieme-fois-daffilee-meilleure-app-bancaire-mobile-de-belgique-par-le-bureau-detudes-international-independant-sia-partners#)

I do not trust Apple for my financials:  it is a foereign company, the nearest Apple Store is 2 hours driving and I don't get a presonalized service, and it does not support Android (which half of my family is using).   On top of that I don't like vertical integration: Apple is great for its hardware, but I don't want to be locked in in the Apple ecosystem for something like my financials, Apple has no business with my bank account details.

Then you should never have bought an iPhone.

riverko

As i had all my physical card in one wallet, i want the same for my digital cards. I don’t want to have multiple wallets… so any bank i have card from leaves Apple Pay, i am leaving that bank.
i am aware that other people may have other preferences, but for me the less apps the better

mizhou

avon b7 said:

So why hasn't that situation arisen on Android where alternative wallet/payment systems have existed for a long time? 

It's freedom of choice.

You decide. All McDonald's wants is your money. Put your card onto Apple Wallet/Pay and see if McDonald's rejects it. 

So far the banks had to support both Android and ApplePay, which means that many have used the standard solutions ApplePay, GoogleWallet or Samsung wallet. Now that Apple have been forced to open up, I’m sure we will  see many more wallet apps. Not only from the big banks, but also from many other companies. 

For example IKEA has their own bank Ikano, and many other big retailers have their own credit cards, which means that many more will create their custom app that work with their card, and many of them will probably drop support for ApplePay when they have their own solution. That means that when I go to IKEA (just an example here) I will have to use the IKEA wallet, and when I want to purchase something from Walmart I’ll have to use the Walmart wallet etc. I can not see how that will benefit me as a consumer. 

I’m all for competition, if it’s a well thought through solution. This is not. The EU politicians think they have done a good job, but they haven’t  thought this through. Their decision n this case is not based on the what’s best for the consumers, but rather based on complaints from other companies that wants to make wallet apps.

Before making decisions like this they should have made a though analysis of the consequences, which they apparently have not done. At least not a proper and thorough analysis. 

igorsky

cropr said:

I do not trust Apple for my financials:  it is a foereign company, the nearest Apple Store is 2 hours driving and I don't get a presonalized service, and it does not support Android (which half of my family is using).   On top of that I don't like vertical integration: Apple is great for its hardware, but I don't want to be locked in in the Apple ecosystem for something like my financials, Apple has no business with my bank account details.

Then why the hell did you buy an iPhone for? You sound like you’re a terrible consumer. 

igorsky

avon b7 said:

You decide. All McDonald's wants is your money. Put your card onto Apple Wallet/Pay and see if McDonald's rejects it. 

Put your card into Apple Wallet/Pay and see if Walmart rejects it. Spoiler alert: they rejected it 

mizhou

avon b7 said:

Consumers will vote with their wallets 

Which one of them?

teejay2012

avon b7 said:

teejay2012 said:

I am not looking for more apps asking for access to my financial information. Given how uninformed my own bank is on any technical issues, I would hardly trust them with NFC. I trust Apple and I like the convenience of Apple Pay. Consumers will vote of course but the banks and other vendors will need to buy the votes as they won't win on security or convenience imo.

Consumers will vote with their wallets 

The reality is we are more likely to see banks that already have Wallet/Payment systems on Android moving to iPhones. 

If they haven't had security issues on Android, their is little to no reason to believe they will have issues on iPhones. 

Funny. Actually we do not know what security issues have occurred with digital wallets, be it Apple or Android. Banks are tight lipped about such things. But I think the situation with Apple users switching to another wallet is quite different than Android users who were given choices at the start. What would compel anyone to switch from Apple Pay other than financial incentives and promotions?

danox

mizhou said:

avon b7 said:

So why hasn't that situation arisen on Android where alternative wallet/payment systems have existed for a long time? 

It's freedom of choice.

You decide. All McDonald's wants is your money. Put your card onto Apple Wallet/Pay and see if McDonald's rejects it. 

So far the banks had to support both Android and ApplePay, which means that many have used the standard solutions ApplePay, GoogleWallet or Samsung wallet. Now that Apple have been forced to open up, I’m sure we will  see many more wallet apps. Not only from the big banks, but also from many other companies. 

For example IKEA has their own bank Ikano, and many other big retailers have their own credit cards, which means that many more will create their custom app that work with their card, and many of them will probably drop support for ApplePay when they have their own solution. That means that when I go to IKEA (just an example here) I will have to use the IKEA wallet, and when I want to purchase something from Walmart I’ll have to use the Walmart wallet etc. I can not see how that will benefit me as a consumer. 

I’m all for competition, if it’s a well thought through solution. This is not. The EU politicians think they have done a good job, but they haven’t  thought this through. Their decision n this case is not based on the what’s best for the consumers, but rather based on complaints from other companies that wants to make wallet apps.

Before making decisions like this they should have made a though analysis of the consequences, which they apparently have not done. At least not a proper and thorough analysis. 

Walmart won't have anything they are not in Europe.

mizhou

danox said:

Walmart won't have anything they are not in Europe.

I know they’re not in Europe, but the guess some people reading and commenting here are from USA, and don’t know about stores we have here, so I used Walmart as an example, because they already knew that Walmart has rejected support for ApplePay and wants to have their own solution. 

But live in Sweden, and there are stores here that have their own cards. Those stores are not in the USA, and many of them not even in other EU countries, like ICA for example. We have ICA, Coop, Lidl, H&M and many other stores here. Most of them already have their membership or customers bonus cards that gives some benefits, and some even have their own credit cards like IKEA (Ikano), ICA, Norwegian (airline and bank) and many more. How many of them will support other wallets, when they implement their own wallets?

Then I need a Norwegian wallet to by airplane tickets, an Ikano card alley to shop at IKEA, an ICA wallet to shop in ICA stores etc. Unless EU will force them to support all wallets from other companies, while ch would be very costly, my guess is that each one of them will require you to use their own wallet. This means I will have to install multiple wallets, and can not freely choose one wallet for all my purchases. 

cessnapaul

mizhou said:

“In short, iPhone users in the EU will be able to replace Apple Pay and Apple's Wallet with offerings from other firms.”

I don’t think so. What EU has done is open up the possibility for other companies to create their own wallets. Pretend that this was in the USA, and Walmart created their own wallet, and MacDonalds their own etc. 

That hasn’t created a freedom for me as a customer to choose a wallet. Instead they will have to have a Walmart wallet, a MacDonalds wallet etc in addition to Apple Wallet. I’m enforced to use several different wallets. In theory I will have to have a wallet app for wvery store I shop in. This is a freedom for the companies to create their own wallets, and I will have to use multiple wallets, NOT a freedom for me to choose one wallet that I can use everywhere. 

The EU politicians have absolutely no clue what they’ve done. They’ve created a mess, not freedom for consumers. 

This is more about removing Apples swipe fees from the merchants. Apple gets a small fee each time their wallet is selected, and banks hate this fee, and therefore want to create their own loop excluding Apple wallet.
And to be clear, Apple didn't invent NFC, nor were they the first company to put it in a phone, so for them to use their power to 'gatekeep' this from business' and iPhone users should be removed I think.

mizhou

cessnapaul said:

mizhou said:

“In short, iPhone users in the EU will be able to replace Apple Pay and Apple's Wallet with offerings from other firms.”

I don’t think so. What EU has done is open up the possibility for other companies to create their own wallets. Pretend that this was in the USA, and Walmart created their own wallet, and MacDonalds their own etc. 

That hasn’t created a freedom for me as a customer to choose a wallet. Instead they will have to have a Walmart wallet, a MacDonalds wallet etc in addition to Apple Wallet. I’m enforced to use several different wallets. In theory I will have to have a wallet app for wvery store I shop in. This is a freedom for the companies to create their own wallets, and I will have to use multiple wallets, NOT a freedom for me to choose one wallet that I can use everywhere. 

The EU politicians have absolutely no clue what they’ve done. They’ve created a mess, not freedom for consumers. 

This is more about removing Apples swipe fees from the merchants. Apple gets a small fee each time their wallet is selected, and banks hate this fee, and therefore want to create their own loop excluding Apple wallet.
And to be clear, Apple didn't invent NFC, nor were they the first company to put it in a phone, so for them to use their power to 'gatekeep' this from business' and iPhone users should be removed I think.

From what I’ve read Apple’s fee is somewhere in the order of 0,05%. I don’t understand why merchants complain about that fee, when the fees to Mastercard,  Visa etc is more like 5%. Since this is a much more secure payment method, I think that Mastercard, Visa etc could simply lower their fee by the amount of the Apple fee. 

You know when you go to a restaurant, and you pay with a card, the waiter comes to your table with a handheld card reader on which you tap your card. You don’t have to confirm that with a pin ode or FaceID or anything. Let’s say some criminals have such a handheld card reader and goes into a crowd of people. There is nothing stopping them from tapping that handheld terminal against you back pocket (where man actually have their wallets) and make a lot of transactions. 

They can’t do that with ApplePay, since you have to double press the side button on the phone to go into payment mode and then confirm with FaceID, on fingerprint for older iPhones, before any transaction takes place. Less such fraudulent transactions means less costs for the card issuers ( USA, Mastercard and others), so they could very well lower their fees. The Apple fee is such a tiny amount compared to the other transaction fees from the card issuers and banks, so I don’t get why everyone is complaining about Apple’s tiny fee.  They raised the bar for security quite a lot. 

The merchants also pay very high fees for the card terminals too, but I don’t hear any complaints about that. 

teejay2012

cessnapaul said:

mizhou said:

“In short, iPhone users in the EU will be able to replace Apple Pay and Apple's Wallet with offerings from other firms.”

I don’t think so. What EU has done is open up the possibility for other companies to create their own wallets. Pretend that this was in the USA, and Walmart created their own wallet, and MacDonalds their own etc. 

That hasn’t created a freedom for me as a customer to choose a wallet. Instead they will have to have a Walmart wallet, a MacDonalds wallet etc in addition to Apple Wallet. I’m enforced to use several different wallets. In theory I will have to have a wallet app for wvery store I shop in. This is a freedom for the companies to create their own wallets, and I will have to use multiple wallets, NOT a freedom for me to choose one wallet that I can use everywhere. 

The EU politicians have absolutely no clue what they’ve done. They’ve created a mess, not freedom for consumers. 

This is more about removing Apples swipe fees from the merchants. Apple gets a small fee each time their wallet is selected, and banks hate this fee, and therefore want to create their own loop excluding Apple wallet.
And to be clear, Apple didn't invent NFC, nor were they the first company to put it in a phone, so for them to use their power to 'gatekeep' this from business' and iPhone users should be removed I think.

No Apple did not invent NFC. No one ever claimed they did. However the tokenization they brought with Apple Pay added a great deal of security. I think especially in the US where using PINs with credit cards was a very slow adoption. And yes I know others have brought tokenization to their wallets, but I am fine with Apple Pay and if they take a small charge to make my transactions secure, merchants can add that to my bill. They seem to be good at passing on every other cost.