There's been an unexpected change in the world of online payments that not everyone is aware of. For the first time since the launch of Apple Pay, rival mobile wallets can now operate the instant a phone meets a card reader. The change traces to a courtroom.
Just two years ago, Apple lost an antitrust case and was ordered to open access to its NFC stack, the main hardware layer behind tap-to-pay that had been closed to outside developers for about 12 years. The software required to build on it began reaching developers in 2026, with the earliest U.S. components due in August, opening a window that had been shut since Apple Pay launched.
