European Commission Accuses Apple Of Abuse Of Dominance With Wireless Payments

The European Commission has informed Apple of the formal accusation for alleged abuse of dominant position that the California company would have carried out in relation to the use of NFC wireless technology with which contactless payments are made.

The EU points out that these limitations would prevent free competition to other payment services other than Apple Pay itself. The Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, explained when announcing the measure that the EU executive is concerned about the possible illegal restriction of competition in which Apple would have incurred.

The preliminary investigation into this matter was initiated in June 2020 in relation to the “Tap to Pay” wireless payment system developed by Apple to enable iPhone users to use the smartphone as a payment terminal, so that customers can make their payments simply by bringing their own iPhones close to the merchant’s iPhone with this operating system.

Payments in a closed ecosystem

Apple defends the restriction that prevents the use of “Tap to Pay” from other devices, alleging protection of the security of iPhone users’ data, but the European Commission, after an initial investigation, has found no evidence of such risk, so it would advocate opening this platform and payment service to terminals of other brands and operating systems.

According to Vestager, Apple would be accused of having established a “closed ecosystem” that would exclude devices that do not operate with the iOS system, which prevents others from acting in free competition, which at the same time restricts the consumer’s ability to choose freely.

Apple will now have access to the documentation with which the European Commission has carried out its investigation, being able to respond in writing to the accusations, and there is no closed timeframe for the resolution of the matter.