EU is considering launching an antitrust investigation with iPhone NFC Chips

Apple has already introduced devices with NFC chips and supports the binding of bank cards through wallets. Binding users can use Apple Payments for convenient payment. Of course, for Apple, users pay through their own services, and Apple can get a partial fee split from the bank and merchants’ receipt fees. In Europe and the United States, many users who are already used to paying by card payment have begun to migrate to Apple Pay. After all, this payment method is simpler and more convenient than swiping the card.

EU regulators have seen that Apple’s payment services have to dominate the market, so this time began to pay attention to whether Apple has any irregularities in market behavior. On the iOS device, only Apple’s own wallet service can use the NFC chip. Apple does not have an interface to open NFC chips for other applications. Obviously, if the user wants to take the mobile phone near the credit card machine for payment, the user can only use Apple’s Apple Pay and then contribute the fee income to Apple. For example, the Android app provided by Barclays Bank in the UK market can directly call NFC for payment, but the Barclays Bank app cannot be paid on iOS devices.

Apple refused to open the call to the relevant hardware interface for security reasons, which caused other developers on the payment service to be unable to compete with Apple fairly. In view of the fact that this EU antitrust regulator has begun to contact the banks of the payment industry and other institutions, the regulator hopes to obtain evidence of Apple’s monopoly.

Via: Gizmodo