The European Commission has accused Apple of abusing its position on mobile payments, particularly in relation to its mobile wallet and also Apple Pay.
The EU has said that Apple restricts competition in mobile wallets on its iOS platform and the iPhone, there is more information below.
The European Commission has informed Apple of its preliminary view that it abused its dominant position in markets for mobile wallets on iOS devices. By limiting access to a standard technology used for contactless payments with mobile devices in stores (‘Near-Field Communication (NFC)’ or ‘tap and go’), Apple restricts competition in the mobile wallets market on iOS.
Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “Mobile payments play a rapidly growing role in our digital economy. It is important for the integration of European Payments markets that consumers benefit from a competitive and innovative payments landscape. We have indications that Apple restricted third-party access to key technology necessary to develop rival mobile wallet solutions on Apple’s devices. In our Statement of Objections, we preliminarily found that Apple may have restricted competition, to the benefit of its own solution Apple Pay. If confirmed, such a conduct would be illegal under our competition rules.”
It will be interesting to see what happens as this could change the way Apple’s mobile payments are done on the iPhone if other companies are given the same access as Apple’s own Apple Pay.
Source European Commission
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