Germany has forced Apple to open its NFC capabilities on iPhones so that third-party payment apps can compete better with Apple Pay (via Reuters).
German Payment Apps
In a late night parliamentary session on Wednesday the country forced Apple to open up NFC to third-party payment apps. This was an amendment to an anti-money laundering law passed on Thursday. It will come into effect early next year.
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The law didn’t specifically mention Apple, only “operators of electronic money infrastructure.” Apple Pay is a growing business for the company, recently beating Starbucks to become the most popular mobile payment solution. Today Apple said in a statement:
We are surprised at how suddenly this legislation was introduced. We fear that the draft law could be harmful to user friendliness, data protection and the security of financial information.
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