With Apple now required in Europe to open its iPhone NFC to competing payment solutions, the competitive landscape may be about to change dramatically.
In Northern Europe, Vipps MobilePay is already live as a direct competitor to Apple Pay, and the European Commission is pushing for even broader access to enable:
– Contactless payments on wearables (rings, bracelets)
– Reading physical payment cards via NFC for easy activation and secure mobile banking
This move by the European Commission could also pave the way for other innovative use cases:
– Tap to provision new payment cards into mobile wallets
– Tap on phone to transform the iPhone into a mobile contactless POS terminal, allowing merchants to accept payments without dedicated hardware
The European Commission is now consulting on these issues within the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Deadline for industry to respond is January 9.
The consultation is available here