Apple Pay Negotiations Still Ongoing in Germany as Hints of Pending Italian Launch Increase

Apple is "working rapidly" to expand Apple Pay to additional countries in Asia and Europe, and there's increasing evidence and reports that suggest the service may launch in Italy and Germany in the near future.

apple pay italy
Apple recently updated its Apple Pay participating banks and card issuers in Asia-Pacific support document with a new image of Europe that has Italy highlighted. The change isn't visible on the United States or Europe versions of the page, suggesting that it may have been added to the Asia-Pacific page prematurely.

italy apple pay grayscale circled
MacRumors discovered a colored version of the image stored on Apple's servers that makes it easier to see Italy highlighted.

italy apple pay blue
Apple's regional Italian website has listed Apple Pay as "coming soon" since March, so it's only a matter of time—WWDC?—before the payments service launches in the country. At launch, Apple Pay will work with Visa and MasterCard in Italy through participating banks UniCredit, Boon, and Carrefour Banca.

Meanwhile, German blog iPhone-Ticker reports that Apple Pay should launch in Germany in the fall or winter. As in some other countries, however, the negotiations between Apple and German banks allegedly continue to be challenging, likely as both sides struggle to reach an agreement over fees and control.

Last October, Germany was similarly highlighted on the Apple Pay availability map, but only for a brief period of time.

apple pay germany map
Apple Pay launched in the United States in October 2014, and it has since expanded to 14 other countries and regions: Australia, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. There was also a rumor that Belgium could be added this month.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tags: Germany, Italy

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Top Rated Comments

Glassed Silver Avatar
110 months ago
Germany is a market with a lot of purchasing power and I expect Apple to try and establish a cut from the transactions as high as possible, meanwhile the banks have ZERO reason to rush an agreement as long as they are all very confident that Apple is asking too much I guess.

I mean, once they negotiate a rate I'm sure it will be harder to move away from it for banks especially.

Also, Germans are VERY reluctant to change banks, so their negotiation power in this is a lot higher than most other places.

Comments like "I changed banks to have Apple Pay" would be rather rare here save for the diehard Apple fans who read about Apple Pay every month on MR et all...

Meanwhile, a range of mobile payment options have long been available. Whilst less secure, less flexible or less convenient and integrated, many of them seem to cover that basic urge to pay with the phone just fine. Another hit to the negotiation power that Apple may have.

Glassed Silver:mac
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
otternonsense Avatar
110 months ago
You mean, by the time Apple Pay arrives in the Netherlands it won't even be relevant anymore.;):p
I moved to Berlin ;)
[doublepost=1494628050][/doublepost]
How so? I mean, I can see some QR code based system eventually coming out on top in the US (for a bunch of reasons) but I'm not sure if there's something like that in Germany.
QR code based system?? Is it 2013 again? :rolleyes:
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheralSadurns Avatar
110 months ago
**** Germany and **** Germans with their backwards attitudes ALL THE ****ING TIME.

Whenever something... anything really... is NEW they immediately HATE it and dismiss it as nonsense. People who use such things are ridiculed on top of everything else.

Smartphones? HAHAHAHA NO ONE needs **** like this... SOOOO useless...
Meanwhile people in all other countries start using them.
5 years later... all of a sudden... smartphones are great in Germany too... and nobody even remembers dismissing them.

Same with tablets...

Non-cash payments...

Electric cars...

The list goes on and on.

I am so fed up with the people here...
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MLVC Avatar
110 months ago
It needs to get a (Western) European rollout to be really successful, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Denmark, Austria e.g. need to be added as well. I understand that if you live in Berlin you don't travel abroad that easily but NRW e.g., they get around. People who live near borders easily shop in one country and have dinner in the other one these days.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fermat-au Avatar
110 months ago
Germany is a market with a lot of purchasing power and I expect Apple to try and establish a cut from the transactions as high as possible, meanwhile the banks have ZERO reason to rush an agreement as long as they are all very confident that Apple is asking too much I guess.

I mean, once they negotiate a rate I'm sure it will be harder to move away from it for banks especially.

Also, Germans are VERY reluctant to change banks, so their negotiation power in this is a lot higher than most other places.

Comments like "I changed banks to have Apple Pay" would be rather rare here save for the diehard Apple fans who read about Apple Pay every month on MR et all...

Meanwhile, a range of mobile payment options have long been available. Whilst less secure, less flexible or less convenient and integrated, many of them seem to cover that basic urge to pay with the phone just fine. Another hit to the negotiation power that Apple may have.

Glassed Silver:mac
The situation in Germany sounds a little like that in Australia, but to a greater extent in Germany. Here in Australia almost everyone has an NFC card and almost every were accepts NFC payments, but ApplePay is only available from one of the big four banks. It is my understanding that the issue in negotiation with three of the big banks is the transaction fee. In Australia the transaction fee is usually paid by the retailer and many retailer have a $10 minimum to pay by card or they charge the consumer 20c or 50c.

Apple design ApplePay for the US where NFC payments were still new and "cool", the problem for them is that in many other parts of the world NFC is already implemented, so Apple is in a far weaker negotiating position in relation to transaction fees.

Another issue that puts Apple is a weaker negotiating position in Germany, is the iPhone is far less popular there than US, UK or AU.


source ('https://mspoweruser.com/here-are-the-kantar-smartphone-market-share-numbers-for-march-2017/').
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pakaku Avatar
110 months ago
**** Germany and **** Germans with their backwards attitudes ALL THE ****ING TIME.

Whenever something... anything really... is NEW they immediately HATE it and dismiss it as nonsense. People who use such things are ridiculed on top of everything else.

Smartphones? HAHAHAHA NO ONE needs **** like this... SOOOO useless...
Meanwhile people in all other countries start using them.
5 years later... all of a sudden... smartphones are great in Germany too... and nobody even remembers dismissing them.

Same with tablets...

Non-cash payments...

Electric cars...

The list goes on and on.

I am so fed up with the people here...
Sounds just like Macrumors half the time
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)