Apple has avoided a potential hefty fine and an antitrust case in Europe after making concessions that include opening up access to iPhone hardware needed for "tap and go" applications.

An investigation was launched into alleged anti-competitive practices around Apple Pay in 2022. One major concern was that Apple restricted access to Near-Field Communication (NFC) tech to its own Apple Pay solution at the expense of third-party alternatives.

During the investigation, the EC made the preliminary conclusion that Apple was indeed abusing its position to keep rivals at bay.

Earlier this year, Apple announced some major changes to its mobile operating system, which included developer access to NFC hardware for contactless payments. It also offered a commitment to allow a third-party payment app to be set as default by users as well as "a monitoring mechanism and separate dispute settlement system to allow for independent review of Apple's decisions restricting access."

The EC market tested the suggestions and, after some consultation, Apple tweaked its proposal to make it easier for developers to prompt users to change their default payment app and removed the requirement for developers to have a license as a Payment Service Provider (PSP) or a binding agreement with a PSP to access the NFC input.

Other modifications to the proposal included shortening deadlines for resolving disputes.

The EC concluded that Apple's final commitments were good enough - at least in terms of addressing this particular area of competition concern - and has elected to make them legally binding under EU antitrust rules.

According to the EC: "If the company concerned does not honor such commitments, the Commission may impose a fine of up to 10 percent of its total annual turnover, without having to find an infringement of EU antitrust rules, or a periodic penalty payment of 5 percent per day of its daily turnover for every day of non-compliance."

Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy, said of the decision: "It opens up competition in this crucial sector, by preventing Apple from excluding other mobile wallets from the iPhone's ecosystem.

"From now on, competitors will be able to effectively compete with Apple Pay for mobile payments with the iPhone in shops. So consumers will have a wider range of safe and innovative mobile wallets to choose from."

The commitments, which apply to developers and users in the European Economic Area (EEA) will remain in force for ten years.

The Register contacted Apple for its take on the decision. The company has yet to respond. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/07/11/european_commission_accepts_apples_tap/