The accusation brought this Monday, May 2 by antitrust investigators from the European Commission could cost Apple dearly. According to the executive vice-president of the institution in charge of competition, Margrethe Vestager, the American multinational “restricts access to the technology needed to develop rival mobile wallet solutions on [ses] devices”. Brussels notes that Apple is preventing its competitors from accessing contactless payment technology on its Apple Pay platform, used by hundreds of millions of iPhone users.
If the abuse of a dominant position is confirmed, this violation of the law of the market could lead to a fine of a value of up to 10% of the company’s worldwide turnover, estimates the Financial Times.
“Such conduct would violate our competition rules,”
recalls Margrethe Vestager, who has already led several similar lawsuits against Apple since taking office in 2014.
The European institution is at the forefront in the field of the regulation of tech companies, underlines the American financial daily. She recently accused Apple of putting competitors at a disadvantage on its Apple Store platform. It also passed two new laws, including the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to regulate the monopoly of large technology platforms.
“Apple Pay is just one of many ways to issue payments for European consumers,” Apple defends itself this time. The software is however “the only payment solution accessible in contactless payment installed on [le système d’exploitation mobile d’Apple] iOS”, observes Brussels, which considers that the multinational already enjoys “a hegemony in the smartphone market and a dominant position in the mobile wallet market”.