iPhone NFC Chips, EU antitrust officers look at Apple Pay

Leaders across the EU have already made clear their thoughts on the Libra cryptocurrency venture on Twitter. Such problems have now extended to Apple Pay, with the EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager’s office investigates whether the pre-installed mobile payment system of the firm plays dirty with the market, Bloomberg said on Wednesday. In September, officials of the European Commission asked mobile payment providers, banks and developers of apps “why Apple Inc.’s phones might benefit Apple Pay over other expense solutions,” Bloomberg wrote, referring to MLex. Regulators reported in an email speech to Bloomberg that the office is tracking “possible anti-competitive marketplace practices and unmannerly behavior” without naming Apple.

In this sense, the Commission is actively monitoring the growth of mobile payment solutions; the actions of payment providers, including mobile payments, wrote the EU according to MLex. The problem focuses on Apple’s patented Near-Field Communication chip, which Apple Pay depends on to allow operators to pay in stores by merely allotment their phones nearby a card reader. Last year, Vestager held she understood that Apple was limiting its use of the NFC chip to Apple Wallet cards only. There are no such limitations on wallet or banking app NFC permissions on IOS.

Competitors have protested that Apple refuses to allow alternative payment methods for Apple Wallet and how the iPhone automatically prompts Wallet users. And when an NFC signal is received, MLex announced the Apple Pay interfaces. Although Apple has relaxed certain NFC constraints, some devices need to be opened manually to the foreground to receive NFC signals, according to 9to5Mac. There is no official investigation yet, and EU regulators may decide to drop the matter. But in an age of rising device sales, services such as mobile payments have become a pillar of Apple’s strategy CEO Tim Cook recently said that the growth of Apple Pay is attracting customers and growing monthly amounts of payments faster than PayPal.