iOS 17.4 was released 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 the App Store from Apple.
This was made possible by force: the European law on digital markets forced Apple to allow these things, otherwise they would never have happened. A similar case of a “walled garden” impenetrable to third parties has so far been the ability to pay for things using the iPhone’s NFC functionality, which the company limits only to its own service, Apple Pay. However, this will change in the EU, perhaps as early as next month.
This is when the European Commission (EC) is set to accept Apple’s offer to open up NFC Tap-to-Pay to enable contactless payments with third-party mobile wallets , according to “people familiar with the matter” speaking to Reuters. This offer from Apple was initially made in January, following a four-year investigation.
If the EC approves the plan, Apple will avoid being found guilty of wrongdoing and thus manage to avoid a potential hefty fine of up to 10% of the company’s global annual turnover. Apple was fined €1.84 billion last month for thwarting competition from Spotify and other rivals through App Store restrictions, and it was its first-ever antitrust penalty in the EU. Obviously, Apple also wants it to be the last one.