EU targets Apple Pay in latest Big Tech antitrust case

EU targets Apple Pay in latest Big Tech antitrust case

BRUSSELS: The EU accused Apple of blocking rivals from its popular “tap-as-you-go” iPhone payment system, opening a fresh battlefront between the US tech giant and Brussels. “The preliminary conclusion that we reached today relates to mobile payments in shops, by excluding others from the game,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s antitrust chief.

“Apple has unfairly shielded its Apple Pay wallets from competition. If proven this behavior would amount to abuse of a dominant position, which is illegal under our rules,” Vestager told reporters.

The European Commission, the bloc’s competition watchdog, specifically charged the iPhone maker with preventing competitors trying to enter the contact-less market “from accessing the necessary hardware and software … to the benefit of its own solution, Apple Pay”.

The accusation is the latest salvo against US tech giants by EU regulators, who have also taken aim at Apple’s music streaming and e-book businesses.

The company is also a main target of the Digital Markets Act, a landmark EU law that will prohibit Apple and other US tech giants from privileging their own services in its products and platforms. The EU’s outline of the case came after the commission launched an investigation in 2020 that was fuelled by complaints from European banks that