Apple To Face Opposition From Seoul Firms Over Closed NFC

Apple is about to face opposition from a group of Seoul-based financial technology firms that are gearing up to file a complaint with the Korean Fair Trade Commission.

According to a report, the financial technology firms are upset about Apple’s closed policy for the near-field communication functions of its iPhones. The financial technology firms in Korea, which include Hankook NFC, Kona I and Cashbee, and law firm Tech&Law reportedly held a meeting last week to hash out how to respond to Apple’s closed NFC policy. The firms contend Apple has blocked other mobile service providers from accessing the NFC fitted on Apple’s smartphones by not opening the application programing interface to other companies. Without the application programming interface, the mobile app service providers are unable to create apps that are compatible with the NFC. The report noted some of the NFC apps cover mobile transport cards, mobile credit cards, identification services and payment apps. KB Kookmin Card, Samsung Card and BC Card have not been able to use NFC-based payment services on their mobile apps designed for Apple iPhones, the report noted.

“Apple’s policy is breaching consumers’ rights to utilize services and limiting fair competition with other FinTech services providers utilizing Apple’s iOS platform,” Koo Tae-eon, an attorney from Tech&Law, said in the report. Starting with the iPhone 6, the NFC function has only been available for Apple’s mobile apps, like Apple Pay.

The move on the part of the financial technology firms comes at a time when Apple is trying to get more people to use Apple Pay. Apple Pay has gotten off to a slow start since being launched some 20 months ago. While the number of people who have tried Apple Pay has tripled since its launch, it’s not being driven by a hysteria that often follows a new iPhone launch. Because it’s being more broadly made available, more people are trying it, thus the tripling of adoptions.