EU: Apple Pay May Violate Antitrust Law by Restricting Access to iPhone's NFC
The European Union is calling out Apple Pay as anticompetitive for the way it allegedly stymies the growth of rival "tap and go" payment services on the iPhone.
On Monday, the European Commission issued a preliminary finding that Apple "abused its dominant position in markets for mobile wallets on iOS devices."
"We have indications that Apple restricted third-party access to key technology necessary to develop rival mobile wallet solutions on Apple's devices," European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
The antitrust finding centers on the iPhone's near-field-communication (NFC) chip, which is used to facilitate mobile payments to point-of-sale systems at retail stores. In 2020, the EU opened an initial investigation, questioning why Apple held exclusive control to the NFC chip when rivals could leverage the same technology to offer competing mobile payment systems.
“Mobile payments play a rapidly growing role in our digital economy,” Vestager added. “It is important for the integration of European payments markets that consumers benefit from a competitive and innovative payments landscape.”
The resulting preliminary investigation claims the company is restricting competition by preventing other mobile wallet developers from accessing the NFC chip. “This has an exclusionary effect on competitors and leads to less innovation and less choice for consumers for mobile wallets on iPhones,” the Commission added. “If confirmed, this conduct would infringe Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU') that prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position.”
The preliminary ruling paves the way for a larger investigation that could saddle Apple with regulatory
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