EC Seeks Feedback On Apple's Commitments Regarding Apple Pay Practices

(RTTNews) - European Commission or EC on Friday sought feedback on commitments offered by consumer electronics major Apple Inc. (AAPL) over competition concerns regarding contactless payments with mobile devices in stores or Near-field communication.

Apple Pay is Apple's mobile wallet that allows users to pay with their mobile devices and it runs only on Apple's operating system iOS, forming a closed ecosystem. This gives the company control over every aspect of the ecosystem including mobile wallet developers' access to it, as per the EC.

According to its preliminary findings, the tech firm has significant market power in the smart mobile devices market and is the only mobile wallet solution that may access the necessary hardware and software on the iOS platform. Further, the company doesn't make it available to third-party mobile wallet app developers. In May 2022, EC informed the company that such conduct may restrict competition in the market for mobile wallets on iOS devices.

To address these concerns, Apple has made commitments to give access to third-party mobile wallet and payment service providers, to apply the commitments to all third-party mobile wallet app developers established in the European Economic Area, and to grant NFC access to third-party mobile wallet app developers.

These commitments will be in force for ten years and the implementation will be monitored by a monitoring trustee who will also report to the EC regularly.

If the company doesn't honor its commitments, then the EC can impose a fine of ten percent on its revenues worldwide without having to prove an infringement of the European Union antitrust rules.

Previously, the EC opened a formal antitrust investigation into Apple's conduct relating to Apple Pay in June 2020 and sent a statement of objections to the company in May 2022.

In pre-market activity, Apple shares are trading at $189.92, up 0.68% on the Nasdaq.