PayPal Pushed EU Antitrust Complaint About Apple Wallet

Apple Pay competitor PayPal played a role in the EU’s decision to target Apple with antitrust complaints about its mobile wallet, reports Bloomberg. 

PayPal was one of “multiple companies” that filed informal complaints about the way Apple restricts third-party apps from accessing the NFC capabilities of the iPhone, which in turn led to the European Commission issuing a Statement of Objections against Apple.

The European Commission believes that Apple is unfairly limiting access to the NFC chip, preventing PayPal, Venmo, banks, and other payment services from offering features that are equivalent to ‌Apple Pay‌, which in turn limits the mobile payment options that ‌iPhone‌ users have access to in stores.No third-party apps are able to access NFC on the ‌iPhone‌, so ‌Apple Pay‌ is the only tap to pay payment method available. Apple claims that the restriction is designed to safeguard user privacy and security, but it will now face an EU investigation.

The European Commission has informed Apple of its preliminary view that it abused its dominant position in markets for mobile wallets on iOS devices. By limiting access to a standard technology used for contactless payments with mobile devices in stores (‘Near-Field Communication (NFC)’ or ‘tap and go’), Apple restricts competition in the mobile wallets market on iOS.

PayPal has an Apple Pay-like tap to pay option that’s available to Android users, and the company wants to be able to offer a similar feature on the ‌iPhone‌. Such a feature would require PayPal to use the NFC chip in the ‌iPhone‌, but it is not able to do so with Apple’s current restrictions.

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