Apple Offers iPhone NFC Chip Access to Apple Pay Rivals in EU

[MacRumors]

Apple has reportedly offered to open up the iPhone near-field communication (NFC) system that Apple Pay uses to other payment services, in a possible effort to forestall impending EU regulatory action.

In a brief report Tuesday, Reuters said that Apple has offered to let rivals access the NFC system in iPhones, but it is not yet clear what Apple's proposal involves. Banks have complained that Apple's exclusive access to the NFC contactless chip in its devices privileges Apple Pay over other payment systems.

In May 2022, the EU antitrust watchdog officially objected to Apple restricting rivals' access to its mobile tap-and-go technology, making it difficult for competitors to develop alternative mobile wallet services on Apple devices.

Apple Pay competitor PayPal and other rivals reportedly played a role in the EU's decision to target Apple with antitrust complaints about its mobile wallet. The company was said to have filed informal complaints about the way Apple restricts third-party apps from accessing the NFC capabilities of the iPhone, which led to the EC's Statement of Objections against Apple.

The European Commission will now likely seek feedback next month from rivals and customers before deciding whether to accept Apple's offer, according to people familiar with the matter who are cited in the report.

This is not the first time that Apple has faced criticism for restricting access to NFC on the ‌iPhone‌. Australian banks back in 2017 wanted access to NFC in order to launch an alternative to ‌Apple Pay‌, but they were not successful.

Article Link: Apple Offers iPhone NFC Chip Access to Apple Pay Rivals in EU

 

[ApostolisApo]

Oh noes, now that NFC will open up who knows what kind of viruses will creep into our phones!!

 

[jlwarlow]

This is bad: I can imaging banks removing support for Apple Pay and demand customers use their app to pay via NFC. So instead of a nice user journey (double click, swipe, pay) we may well be down the (double click), select bank app, wait ages for bank app to load, log in to bank app, dismiss useless message on bank app, pay. Much like the Tesco Pay+ I never use and I always have to login when trying to use it.

 

[Stiksi]

This is great news, hopefully we’ll finally be able to get services that include loyalty cards with NFC payments. Apple pay is nice but very limited.

 

[podycust]

Oh great the last thing we need is letting the banks create their own payment system! Then they all will drop  Pay their own infer system

 

[Stiksi]

This is bad: I can imaging banks removing support for Apple Pay and demand customers use their app to pay via NFC. So instead of a nice user journey (double click, swipe, pay) we may well be down the (double click), select bank app, wait ages for bank app to load, log in to bank app, dismiss useless message on bank app, pay. Much like the Tesco Pay+ I never use and I always have to login when trying to use it.

It doesn’t take that much to change banks. But it may put pressure on Apple to lower fees, which is mainly an Apple problem.

 

[Someyoungguy]

This is bad: I can imaging banks removing support for Apple Pay and demand customers use their app to pay via NFC. So instead of a nice user journey (double click, swipe, pay) we may well be down the (double click), select bank app, wait ages for bank app to load, log in to bank app, dismiss useless message on bank app, pay. Much like the Tesco Pay+ I never use and I always have to login when trying to use it.

I didn’t see anything about this that means the double-click can’t still be exclusive to Apple Pay.

 

[scorpio vega]

This is getting ridiculous.

 

[bviktor]

Yay, can't wait for my bank to revoke Apple Pay support! /s

 

[jdavid_rp]

For the sake of equality, I just hope banks have to offer Apple Pay too if they choose to use their own system, like the Apple Sign in system (if a dev offers Google sign in, has to offer Apple sign in too).

Oh great the last thing we need is letting the banks create their own payment system! Then they all will drop  Pay their own infer system

On Android most of the banks are on Google pay and Samsung Pay so I don’t think that would happen in iOS neither

 

[Rychiar]

Don’t ya just use a banks card through Apple Pay? Who cares otherwise

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

This is bad: I can imaging banks removing support for Apple Pay and demand customers use their app to pay via NFC. So instead of a nice user journey (double click, swipe, pay) we may well be down the (double click), select bank app, wait ages for bank app to load, log in to bank app, dismiss useless message on bank app, pay. Much like the Tesco Pay+ I never use and I always have to login when trying to use it.

That's a great misunderstanding:

Most EU banks that offer Apple Pay have, slowly, opted to add support for payments through Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc., as consumers interests have went in that direction.

These banks were never forced to adopt ApplePay, and no user had the ability to circumvent the lack of ApplePay support if the bank issuing their credit/debit card doesn't support it.

Any bank can opt out of Apple Pay if they ever want to.

Apple Pay payments made through payment networks, like VISA, or local payment networks where they are available. Payment networks, like VISA, force sellers (shops) to pay a fee when buyers use Apple Pay. VISA then gives a tiny fraction of the payment fee to Apple for using Apple Pay.

The big "issue" with having consumers opt for ApplePay, and similar services, is that an Apple Pay payment will most often default to using networks like VISA instead of the local payment network.

The local payment network will commonly have a (comparatively) very small fees for the buyer or seller (shop), but payment networks like VISA will always add a quite substantial fee that the shop will have to pay (or directly charge the buyer for if it's legal in that country).

Because directly adding an extra payment fee like this when selling to the end consumer is illegal in some places, many stores have been forced to increase prices on all goods to avoid the loss from the increased usage of Apple Pay and similar services.

*Yes, it's a marginal price increase, but it adds to billions upon billions when considering the total number of daily payments.

The implementation of Apple Pay has meant that far more local payments go through networks like VISA where it was formerly more common that card holders would only use VISA when traveling abroad, where the local payment networks of their respective countries aren't available.

Apple being forced to open Apple Pay (NFC chip) up will most likely lead to (marginally small pr. transaction but significant at a large scale) lower prices on all goods and services as it will be easier for buyers to have their contactless payments default to the (no fees for stores/sellers) local payment networks if banks can circumvent Apple Pay and/or networks like VISA but still make use of the security and ease of use that Apple's NFC payment system offers.

If Apple wants consumers, banks and stores, to keep using Apple Pay, then they'd, at the very least, be forced to lower their fees on all Apple Pay payments made using local and global networks, like VISA.

This would most likely lead to a win for buyers and sellers, but a loss for Apple and (disproportionately expensive) payment networks like VISA.

 

[laptech]

Regardless of peoples bad experiences with their bank, what Apple is doing is the right thing to do because many many people use their bank's banking app on their iphone but yet they cannot take advantage of the iphones NFC capabilities because Apple wont allow others to use it's technology thus if I want to pay for something, I have go out of my banking app and into Apple's pay. I shouldn't have to do this. I should be allowed to use my banks banking app directly but until Apple allow banks to use it's NFC technology I will have to exit my banking app and open up Apple pay.

 

[Ctrlos]

On Android most of the banks are on Google pay and Samsung Pay so I don’t think that would happen in iOS neither

Someone gets it right!

NFC is open on Android and yet banks don't bother to build their own app.

Paypal could work with Apple Pay if it wanted in the exact same way Curve does.

 

[wanha]

This is bad: I can imaging banks removing support for Apple Pay and demand customers use their app to pay via NFC. So instead of a nice user journey (double click, swipe, pay) we may well be down the (double click), select bank app, wait ages for bank app to load, log in to bank app, dismiss useless message on bank app, pay. Much like the Tesco Pay+ I never use and I always have to login when trying to use it.

Apple users tend to be among the most sought after customers and I firmly belief customers would revolt if Apple Pay stopped working suddenly - I would.

This cat's out of the bag and the banks can't stuff it back in.

 

[wanha]

It's smart of Apple to get ahead of this, as they will still remains the default payment option on iPhones, and we all know what being the default means for adoption.

Those that want to configure another payment option are free to do so, but I would imagine 80% of consumers can't or won't be bothered.

I will personally stick to Apple Pay regardless.

 

[nottorp]

As other posters have said before me:

I use cards from 3 banks. I don't care about having 3 apps for those cards. Especially since I fully expect said apps to be like gacha mobile games, 10 upsell screens to skip for each payment.

Maybe Apple Pay should be regulated as an utility instead.

 

[AndiG]

Competition and choice is always welcome. I really do like Apple Pay and use it nearly every day - but I don't like that I have to stick to Apple Pay when I'm using an iPhone.

Apple should open even more and offer Apple Pay for other devices as well. I would use Apple Pay on a Garmin watch or on another Smartphone Brand, cause I think it is secure and well designed.

 

[cocky jeremy]

This is getting ridiculous.

It's been ridiculous. A bunch of 70 year olds that don't even know how to text trying to write laws about tech. It's beyond stupid.

 

[jimbobb24]

Apples “exclusive” access to the device they designed with their security built in….these articles all read so crazy to me.

 

[chewbaka]

Coach should be forced to open up a couple card slots on their wallets to Louis Vuitton.

 

[Jay-Jacob]

I hope not cos the if banks allow their payments systems on NFC and they will remove apple pay option. I don’t want that. If NFC open up then I want at least say they must offer Apple
pay as well or cannot use NFC or something like that prevent banks remove their Apple Pay option for their payement system like Barclays and Tesco etc.

 

[SactoGuy18]

This is why I expect a whole bunch of major changes to iOS 18.0. We won't see major UI changes, but some of the changes will be significant:

1. Opening up access to the NFC chip, but under strict security rules agreed upon by Apple and third parties.
2. Running multiple app stores in the App Store app, but all app stores will adhere to a strict set of security rules.
3. Allowing sideloading under strict security criteria.

For this message thread, that will allow the likes of Walmart to update their app so payments are done through NFC instead of the QR-code based system now used.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

The EU continues to solidify Apple’s position as one of the two mobile platforms in the region. Still don’t see how anything they’re doing increases the TWO choices that have existed for awhile.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Apples “exclusive” access to the device they designed with their security built in….these articles all read so crazy to me.

Like it’s been for awhile, Apple’s done a good job making things people WITH money want to buy and spend additional money on. Everyone else just wants access to all those customers. Their assumption is that they just need access, without materially changing how they do business, and they’ll get some of those customers.

Perhaps. We’ll see.