Source: Mac Rumors Forums
PayPal reportedly had a role in the decision from the European Union to target Apple Inc with antitrust complaints about its mobile wallet. The Apple Pay competitor was one of the many organisations that gave in informal complaints about Apple’s restrictions on third-party apps from gaining access to NFC technology on iPhone. This led to the European Commission publishing a Statement of Objections against the tech giant.
The European Commission holds the belief that the tech company is rather unfairly restricting access to its NFC chip on iPhones. This limitation is mainly preventing Venmo, PayPal, banks, along with other payment methods from offering options that are at par with Apple Pay. In turn, this restricts the mobile payment options that users of iPhones have access to while making payments. Currently, no third-party apps have the access to NFC on iPhones, making Apple Pay the only tap to pay payment outlet available. The tech giant claims that this limitation is in place to ensure security and privacy of users. However, now it is set to face an investigation by the European Union.
By limiting access to a standard technology used for contactless payments with mobile devices in stores (‘Near-Field Communication (NFC)’ or ‘tap and go’), Apple restricts competition in the mobile wallets market on iOS.
Similar to Apple Pay, PayPal has a tap to pay option made available to users of Android, which the company wants to extend to iPhone users as well. This particular feature would need PayPal to use the NFC chip, which is not available owing to restrictions placed by Apple Inc.
The tech giant reportedly has plans to enable third-party apps to utilise the NFC technology for the approaching ‘Tap to Pay on iPhone’ feature. This feature would enable compatible iPhones to take payments through Apple Pay, contactless cards, along with other digital wallets which do not require any hardware. However, this is not exactly equivalent to the tap to pay that Apple Pay offers, as desired by PayPal.
According to Apple Inc, the rivals of its mobile payment system such as PayPal are already popular on iPhone without a direct option of tap to pay. However, the tech giant plans to go on engaging with the ‘commission to ensure that European consumers’ gain access to the payment method of their choice in a safe setting.
