European Commission to approve Apple’s opening up of iPhone tap-to-pay to third parties in May

iOS 17.4 came out last month with monumental changes for iPhone owners in the EU, including the ability to use third party app stores, and pay for apps and services outside of Apple’s App Store.

This was made possible by force – namely, the European Digital Markets Act made Apple allow these things, otherwise they never would have happened. A similar case of a ‘walled garden’ impenetrable to third parties has so far been the ability to pay for stuff using the iPhone’s NFC functionality, which the company restricts to only its own service, Apple Pay. That, however, will change in the EU, possibly as soon as next month.

That’s when the European Commission (EC) is set to agree to Apple’s offer to open up the tap-to-pay NFC function to allow contactless payments with third party mobile wallets, according to “people familar with the matter” speaking to Reuters. This offer from Apple was initially made in January, prompted by a four-year investigation.

If the EC approves the plan, then Apple will dodge a finding of wrongdoing and will thus manage to avoid a potential hefty fine that could go as high as 10% of the company’s global annual turnover. Apple was hit with a €1.84 billion fine last month for thwarting competition from Spotify and other rivals via App Store restrictions, and that was its first ever EU antitrust penalty. Obviously, Apple also wants it to be the last.