European Commission requests input on Apple Pay competition probe

The European Commission on Friday requested input on commitments presented by tech giant Apple to appease competition concerns related to in-store contactless payments with mobile devices.

Apple Pay is Apple's mobile wallet that allows users to pay with their mobile devices and it runs only on Apple's operating system iOS, forming a closed ecosystem.

This gives the company control over every aspect of the ecosystem including mobile wallet developers' access to it, as per the Commission.

According to its preliminary findings, the tech firm has significant market power in the smart mobile devices market and is the only mobile wallet solution that may access the necessary hardware and software on the iOS platform.

Further, the company doesn't make it available to third-party mobile wallet app developers.

In May 2022, the Commission informed the company that such conduct may restrict competition in the market for mobile wallets on iOS devices.

To address these concerns, Apple has made commitments to give access to third-party mobile wallet and payment service providers, to apply the commitments to all third-party mobile wallet app developers established in the European Economic Area, and to grant in-store contactless payment access to third-party mobile wallet app developers.

These commitments will be in force for 10 years and the implementation will be monitored by a trustee who will also report to the Commission regularly.

If the company doesn't honour its commitments, then the Commission can impose a fine of 10% on its worldwide revenues without having to prove an infringement of the European Union antitrust rules.

Previously, the Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation into Apple's conduct relating to Apple Pay in June 2020 and sent a statement of objections to the company in May 2022.