Apple avoids EU fine thanks to iPhone changes

This includes enabling third parties to access iPhone’s near field communication (NFC) functionality to make contactless payments and enabling third-party payment apps to be set as the default choice by users.

Apple took the first steps in this direction earlier this year by changing iOS to allow third-party access to NFC. After consulting with the EC, it made further changes to facilitate user choice and ease some of the restrictions it imposed on third-party app developers. It also made additional commitments to make the dispute resolution process easier.

The European Commission, which has repeatedly called Apple to account for antitrust violations and conducted numerous investigations, said it was confident that Apple’s commitments met its requirements on this aspect at least.

“The Commission has concluded that Apple’s final commitments will address its competition concerns related to Apple’s restriction of third-party mobile wallet developers’ access to NFC payments in stores for EEA iOS users,” the EC said in a statement. “It has therefore decided to make them legally binding on Apple.” The commitments will remain in force for 10 years. If Apple is found to have deviated from the rules during that time, a fine of 5% of daily turnover per day could still apply.

“Apple is committed to enabling rivals to tap and go on iPhone,” Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of competition policy, said in a statement.

“It opens up competition in this key sector by preventing Apple from excluding other mobile wallets from the iPhone ecosystem. Competitors will now be able to effectively compete with Apple Pay for mobile payments with iPhone in stores. This will give consumers a wider choice of secure and innovative mobile wallets.”