EU to say Apple Pay breaks antitrust laws
The European Union is reportedly about to accuse Apple of breaking the law over how Apple Pay is the only service allowed to use the company's payments system.
Credit: Apple
Apple Pay has been under EU scrutiny since at least 2019, but a new report claims that next week in May 2022, officials expect to formally accuse Apple of antitrust actions over it.
According to the Financial Times, EU investigators will announce charges relating to the iPhone's NFC ability, and Apple's refusal to allow third-party payment systems to use it.
The publication says that its sources report the investigators are intent on acting soon, but the timing of the announcement may yet be delayed.
Whenever it is made, Apple could potentially face fines of up to 10% of its global turnover, should the charges be upheld.
These expected charges come as the EU is also preparing its Digital Markets Act, which among much else, would require Apple to allow app developers to use third-party payment systems instead of Apple's own.
Read on AppleInsider
Credit: Apple
Apple Pay has been under EU scrutiny since at least 2019, but a new report claims that next week in May 2022, officials expect to formally accuse Apple of antitrust actions over it.
According to the Financial Times, EU investigators will announce charges relating to the iPhone's NFC ability, and Apple's refusal to allow third-party payment systems to use it.
The publication says that its sources report the investigators are intent on acting soon, but the timing of the announcement may yet be delayed.
Whenever it is made, Apple could potentially face fines of up to 10% of its global turnover, should the charges be upheld.
These expected charges come as the EU is also preparing its Digital Markets Act, which among much else, would require Apple to allow app developers to use third-party payment systems instead of Apple's own.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
As I understand it's not about Apple Pay, but about NFC. EU wants that Apple allows other payment systems to use iPhone's NFC.
But I still think, that why should Apple should offer this functionality. Apple doesn't even have the majority of the smart phone market. You can consider it a relatively small player (in terms of number of units).
FK EU government. As any other government.
Why no complaints about banks withholding their cards from iPhones? Why can they refuse to let customers add their bank card to the iPhone (and enjoy increased security/reduced fraud) yet complain that Apple won’t allow Apps access to NFC?
Vestager et al. have been spewing this bluster for years now. They need to stop flapping their yappers and start dishing out the giga-fines, to Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Facebook. Show all those mean companies who's boss.
Now that iPhone doesn't have an analog jack, the new swiper connects to the Lightning port, and I don't think it's quite so cheap anymore. (And not sure if anyone but Square can use it now.)
These people are dumber than Monkeys. Say what you will about China and India, much smarter and reasonable people there
It is only an antitrust violation if the NFC tech is actually industry standard. So far as I am aware, the NFC tech in an iPhone is integrated directly to the Secure Element in the SoC. It would therefore NOT be an industry standard implementation of NFC and by corollary not subject to antitrust violation legislation.
Either way, how it took 3 years to investigate something that could have been determined in less than a month tells you everything you need to know about the competency of the investigators. It is these needlessly long time lines that undermine public confidence in government of any sort.
I already use Apple Pay a lot and can see myself and others also moving to Apple Card when that becomes available.
So eventually all payments on iPhone will be owned by Apple. And I guess the rest will be owned by Google, who knows.
Then we have almost a monopoly.
I think there is a mythical belief that alternative payment systems would eliminate fees to Apple (or Google for the Android store) but this is false. The stores have operating costs for hosting, distributing and providing upgrades to app developers, and for services like push notifications. Developers would most likely still owe fees, but the fees payment process would be more complex and costly. I see this as pressure from other payment processors to deliver business to them which is really just self-serving lobbying, not a real benefit to consumers.
It seems that the point of the the EU is Apple restricting NFC for its own system and not allowing it to be used for other payment systems.
To me, it would seem to be akin to Apple only letting the WiFi on its phones connect to Apple certified routers.
The problem does not appear to have anything to do with Apple Pay itself.