{"id":377452,"date":"2024-07-11T14:57:29","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T12:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/07\/11\/commissione-europea-apple-mobile-wallets\/"},"modified":"2024-07-17T11:37:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T09:37:00","slug":"european-commission-and-apple-call-a-truce-brussels-accepts-cupertinos-commitments-on-mobile-wallets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/07\/11\/european-commission-and-apple-call-a-truce-brussels-accepts-cupertinos-commitments-on-mobile-wallets\/","title":{"rendered":"European Commission and Apple call a truce, Brussels accepts Cupertino’s commitments on mobile wallets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Just a few months after the 1.8 billion maxi-fine<\/a> imposed on Apple over the Spotify case, the European Commission and the Cupertino-based tech giant are making peace on another dossier relating to Apple Pay and the alleged abuse of dominant position against all other mobile wallet apps<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Brussels\u00a0accepted<\/a> Apple’s proposed commitments that ensure an effective competition regime. If the US giant implements them by July 25<\/strong>,\u00a0one of the chapters in the complicated relationship between the European Commission and the company of\u00a0Steve Jobs\u00a0could be closed. A chapter opened in 2022 when EU Competition Commissioner\u00a0Margrethe Vestager<\/strong> raised doubts about Apple’s conduct and later found that the company was abusing its dominant position by restricting access to the technology needed to make payments with iPhones.<\/p>\n

The underlying issue is well known, namely that “Apple has built a closed ecosystem around its devices and operating systems.” Therefore – the European Commission notes – it refused to give access to the iPhone’s NFC technology<\/strong> (essential for developing mobile wallets) to competing app developers.\u00a0Instead, it reserved its exclusive use for Apple Pay. However, Apple did not develop the NFC technology; it is a standardized technology that is freely available.<\/p>\n

In addition to preventing\u00a0other providers from reaching iPhone users, Apple’s obstructionism “may have had a negative impact on innovation,” Vestager noted. A policy “harmful to consumers and illegal under EU competition rules,”<\/strong> the EU Commission said.<\/p>\n

In response to Brussels’ concerns, Apple proposed to the Commission to make an initial set of commitments. These were rejected after feedback from banks, app developers, and financial associations across the EU. Apple raised the bar and offered better remedies, which the European Commission accepted and made binding.<\/p>\n

First, Apple is committed to giving other mobile wallet apps access to NFC functionality. Free access. In addition, the Cupertino company\u00a0will allow access to other important features available on iPhones<\/strong>, such as double-clicking the side button on one’s iPhone to launch the preferred payment app. Competing wallets will also be able to use Face ID, Touch ID, and passcodes to verify users’ identities. Finally, Apple will allow users to\u00a0choose\u00a0the standard mobile wallet option.<\/p>\n

The commitments made by the high-tech giant “end our investigation into Apple Pay,” Vestager announced. But other disputes <\/strong>relating to compliance<\/a>\u00a0with the new European Digital Marketplace Act (DMA) remain open, in particular,\u00a0Apple’s use of so-called anti-steering provisions, which prohibit third-party app developers from informing iOS users within their apps about the prices of subscription offers available on the Internet, as well as price differences between in-app subscriptions.<\/p>\n

In doing so, Apple makes it nearly impossible for iOS users to learn about or sign up for\u00a0subscriptions to music streaming apps available outside the App Store<\/strong> or indirectly imposes higher costs on them. For that, the European Commission imposed a\u00a0nine-figure fine, accompanied by an order to remove the anti-steering provisions and to\u00a0“refrain from repeating the infringement<\/strong> or adopting practices with equivalent object or effect in the future.” But so far, nothing has moved in Cupertino. “What I can say so far is that we have not seen a change in behavior from Apple. I would have hoped so,” Vestager confirmed at a press conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US giant will allow free access to iPhone’s NFC functionality to other mobile wallet apps, resolving the abuse of dominant position found by the European Commission. On the Apple-Spotify case that led to the 1.8 billion fine, “so far no change from Apple”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":377285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25710],"tags":[27115,26511],"class_list":["post-377452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-net-tech-en","tag-apple-en-2","tag-margrethe-vestager-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377452"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377506,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377452\/revisions\/377506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}