Jan. 19 (UPI) — The European Commission Friday invited public comment as it weighs proposals by Apple to resolve concerns that Apple Pay violates EU law by restricting competition in mobile wallets.
The commission objected to Apple’s practices in May 2022, informing the company of the preliminary finding that Apple may have violated Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
In a bid to resolve the issue, Apple is offering to allow third-party mobile wallet and payment service providers to operate on iOS devices and to apply that to mobile app developers and iOS users within the European Economic Area.
Apple also committed to provide additional features and functionalities like defaulting to preferred payment apps on iOS devices and to establish a dispute settlement mechanism in cases where NFC input is denied.
NFC, or near-field communication, allows devices to be held near payment terminals to exchange information wirelessly.
Apple proposed applying “fair, objective, transparent and non-discriminatory eligibility criteria” to give third-party developers NFC access on iOS devices.
If approved by the European Commission after a one-month public input period, Apple’s commitments would be in force for 10 years.
The commission opened a formal antitrust investigation into Apple in 2020 to assess whether Apple Pay violates EU competition rules.
Earlier this week Apple faced regulatory issues in the United States as its Apple Watches were again banned for sale this week when a federal court denied Apple’s request to halt an import ban on the watches.
That ban was imposed over the use of pulse oximetry technology to measure the wearer’s blood-oxygen level patented by Masimo Corp.
The International Trade Commission ruled in favor of Masimo’s claim that Apple co-opted its patented technology and also poached several workers who helped developed it.
