In January, Apple announced policy changes that will give rival Apple Pay services full access to the iPhone's NFC. Banking apps and alternative e-wallets will be able to be used for contactless payment with a smartphone. This decision satisfied the EU - the antitrust case against Apple Pay was closed.
After reviewing the changes proposed by the manufacturer, European officials announced that they are satisfied with these concessions by Apple and that the four-year investigation into alleged abuses of the Apple Pay service will be closed. New API tools allow other apps to become the default wallet, meaning full competition with Apple Pay: European banks and payment processors will be able to launch their own apps without being at a disadvantage in terms of capabilities.
Apple also agreed to remove the requirement that developers have a payment service provider license to be able to make contactless payments with a phone instead of a card. The company is committed to maintaining this feature as industry standards evolve – even in ways that may not be feasible for Apple Pay. But all these opportunities will only be valid for developers in the European Economic Area - authorities in other regions will obviously have to put pressure on Apple to achieve the same conditions.
This is just one of many competition-related investigations into Apple that the EU has conducted in recent years. In January, the investigation into the case of streaming music services ended: the company was fined 1.84 billion euros, but decided to appeal the decision. The battle continues to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which requires iOS to be open to the distribution of apps from third-party sources, but Apple continues to block this, claiming that its proposed plan meets the requirements.