The European Union has risen up Antitrust case against apple on Monday, the company’s accusation of Abusing its dominant position by limiting access to technologies Allow contactless payment.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-nation bloc, has been investigating Apple since 2020 view is that the company is restricting competition by blocking mobile wallet app developers of access to the necessary hardware and software on Apple devices.
dependent mobile wallets on Near Field Communication, or NFC, which uses a chip in The mobile device To connect wirelessly with Payment terminal for the merchant.
The panel said Apple Pay is by far the largest company based on NFC technology mobile Pocket wallet on The market The company is accused of reject others access to the audience technology.
“Apple has built A closed ecosystem around its devices and operating system, iOS. and apple controls Gateways to this ecosystem, setting rules of The game for anyone who Wants to reach consumers using Apple devices, “EU competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said. ‘Excluding others from gameApple has unfairly protected its Apple Pay wallets from competition. “
The committee did not say how big Fines can be if the charges against Apple was finally supported.
Apple responded in A statement that it “will continue to engage.” with Committee for ensure European consumers have access to pay option of their choice in Safe and secure environment. “
The committee said that practice “He has an exception effect on competitors It leads to less innovation and fewer choices for consumers for mobile governor on iPhones.” She sent a statement of Objections to Apple over its official practices step in its investigations into suspected violations of Antitrust in the European Union rules.
the case one of The European Union has opened several investigations targeting Apple. Regulators in the European Union are also Consider whether the company has violated antitrust laws in the block by distortion competition for music Streaming unfairly imposed rules for Competitive Services in its own app store.
The panel said only Apple Pay is mobile Wallet solution that may access NFC input is necessary on iOS blamed Apple for Do not do it available to the third-party a program developers.
Apple responded by saying digital Wallet service only one of Many options available for European consumers for Make payments, within equality access to NFC during industry tuning-leading Standards for privacy and security.”
Vestager said the EU takes security issues seriously, but insisted the bloc’s investigation had not revealed evidence that security risks would increase if access granted to third parties.
“On the contrary, the evidence on “Our filing indicates that Apple’s behavior cannot be justified by security concerns,” she said.
