A new report says that Apple has offered to open up Apple Pay to its rivals in the EU as part of revised terms devised to appease the oncoming tide of Brussels legislation.
According to Reuters, Apple’s proposal “to open its tap-and-go mobile payments system to rivals is set to be approved by EU antitrust regulators as soon as next month.” It follows a four-year EU investigation into Apple’s tap-to-pay technology on iPhone, powered by NFC. As it stands, iPhone users can currently only use the feature through Apple Pay, which is exclusive to all of Apple’s best iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watch.
According to the European Commission (EC), Apple Pay’s exclusivity constitutes an abuse of a dominant position “in markets for mobile wallets on iOS devices.” In a Statement of Objections leveled at the company in 2022, the EC claimed that Apple “restricts competition in the mobile wallets market on iOS” by limiting the use of its NFC tech on iPhone.
Rival payments on iPhone
The news indicates that as early as May, Apple will make significant changes to tap-to-pay tech on iPhone which could allow users to access rival services such as Google Wallet and Samsung Wallet. Whether or not any rival services choose to take advantage of the expected rule change, or whether or not it's of any interest to users already invested in the iPhone ecosystem is another matter.
Tap-to-pay on iPhone tweaks would mark just one of a number of sweeping changes Apple is making to the iPhone in the face of staunch antitrust legislation in the EU. Most notably, Apple has opened up iOS 17 to alternative app marketplaces and web distribution of apps, so that developers can offer apps freely to users beyond the iPhone’s App Store. More broadly, Apple has opened up iOS to game streaming worldwide, along with game emulators on iPhone, which brought with it the popular launch of Delta, an app that enables Nintendo emulation for a range of consoles including Game Boy and SNES.
According to Reuters, the EC is hoping to access Apple’s offer of tap-to-pay changes “by the summer,” but May is the “likeliest month.” If Apple doesn’t get itself on the EC’s good side when it comes to NFC payments on iPhone, it could face a fine of up to 10% of its global annual turnover, which is nearly $400 billion.
