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

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.

apple pay feature dynamic island
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.

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Top Rated Comments

jlwarlow Avatar
20 months ago
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.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ApostolisApo Avatar
20 months ago
Oh noes, now that NFC will open up who knows what kind of viruses will creep into our phones!!
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Stiksi Avatar
20 months ago

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.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
wanha Avatar
20 months ago

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.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bviktor Avatar
20 months ago
Yay, can't wait for my bank to revoke Apple Pay support! /s
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jdavid_rp Avatar
20 months ago
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
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)