Britain's Watchdog Says Apple's Contactless Fees Are Blocking Fintechs
The UK's competition watchdog says smartphone users there could gain new payment, ticket and travel apps if Apple widens access to its contactless payment technology. The Competition and Markets Authority believes Apple's current fees and charges are blocking financial technology firms and others from innovating and growing, and it is consulting on proposals it believes would cause those fees to fall.
Apple maintains that widening access could undermine security, and that its current arrangements do not stop innovation. Nearly two in five payments are now contactless, the watchdog says, with nearly 60% of people using digital wallets — and Apple's is the most popular in the UK.
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The EU comparison is the hard part of the CMA's case: within six months of the EU forcing Apple to widen access to its tech, an alternative payment app, Vipps, launched, followed by PayPal, Klarna, Curve and BBVA. In the UK, by the watchdog's account, not a single firm has launched a wallet-type product to compete with Apple's.
Apple's reply is that those new apps could easily have been launched before the EU changes. It also says its existing arrangements already let developers in the UK and elsewhere offer contactless transactions securely inside their own apps, from in-store payments and transit passes to car keys and event tickets.