According to insiders, under pressure from the European Union (EU), Apple will make its mobile phone payment system available to rival payment processors in the future. The US company wants to settle an antitrust dispute and avoid a threatened $1 billion fine, several people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
European antitrust watchdogs accuse the iPhone carrier of stifling competition by restricting access to its contactless mobile phone payment technology. Payment processors have repeatedly demanded technological access to Apple Pay’s NFC chip.
NFC stands for Near Field Communication and enables contactless data exchange over short distances. To pay, smartphones or bank cards with these chips only need to be held briefly at the relevant terminals.
The EU will now seek comments from competitors and customers, the insiders said. It depends on the answers whether they accept Apple’s concession as sufficient.
The European competition watchdog declined to comment on the matter. Apple was not immediately available for comment. If EU antitrust laws are broken, companies face fines of up to 10 percent of annual global turnover.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
