Apple offers to open iPhone NFC payments to third-party providers

Apple has offered concessions to address a European Commission antitrust investigation. The regulator announced that Apple will let third-party mobile wallet and payment providers access the iPhone’s NFC capabilities. The commitments would end Apple Pay and Apple Wallet’s exclusive access to the iPhone’s NFC payment features.

The Commission is now seeking feedback on the commitments, which come a little over one and a half years after the Commission formally accused Apple of using its iOS policies to restrict competition in the mobile payments market in violation of EU law.

Apple has offered to provide third-party developers in the European Economic Area with an option that will enable their users to make NFC contactless payments from within their iOS apps, separate from Apple Pay and Apple Wallet.

Although Apple does let third-party app developers access the iPhone’s NFC features to read electronic tags, it restricts making payments over NFC to its own software.