EU forces Apple Pay to share the stage: More tap-to-pay options coming to your iPhone

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The European Commission (EC) is relentless in its push for open access, making big tech companies rethink their rules. For example, the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) has already forced Apple to allow different app stores on iPhones. Now, the company is opening up its contactless payment system as well.

Apple opens iPhone payments to competition in the EU

The EC has given the nod to Apple’s updated commitments, which means users won’t be restricted to using just the Apple Pay mobile wallet anymore.Apple Pay is Apple’s mobile wallet that lets iPhone users make payments both in stores and online. Since iPhones exclusively use iOS, Apple maintains control over every aspect of its ecosystem, including the conditions for mobile wallet developers to access it.

However, the tech giant is now allowing European developers to enable tap-and-go payments within their iOS apps for things like car keys, transit passes, corporate badges, home keys, hotel keys, merchant loyalty rewards, and event tickets.

From now on, Apple can no longer use its control over the iPhone ecosystem to keep other mobile wallets out of the market. Competing wallet developers, as well as consumers, will benefit from these changes, opening up innovation and choice while keeping payments secure.

– Margrethe Vestager, EU antitrust chief, July 2024

Apple has until July 25 to roll out these changes, which will be in effect for 10 years across all 30 countries in the European Economic Area.

Apple opens iPhone payments to competition - EU forces Apple Pay to share the stage: More tap-to-pay options coming to your iPhone

Apple opens iPhone payments to competition

The European Commission first took issue with Apple’s tap-to-pay practices in 2022 after starting a formal antitrust investigation into Apple Pay two years earlier. Regulators determined that Apple had abused its dominant market position by limiting access to the NFC technology required for mobile payments. This restriction meant that rivals couldn’t create apps or wallets with tap-to-pay features on iPhones, forcing users to rely solely on Apple Pay for mobile payments.

Had Apple failed to comply with the DMA rules, it would have been subject to even steeper fines than before. In March, Apple was hit with its first EU antitrust penalty – a 1.84-billion euro fine – for stifling competition from Spotify and other music streaming rivals through App Store restrictions.

Ahead of Apple and the EU finalizing the deal, developers have been gearing up, and the first alternative to Apple Wallet is already ready to launch in Europe.

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