Apple Pay and the iPhone’s NFC sensor have long been the subject of disputes around the globe.Last year, the European Commission compelled Apple to grant developers access to the NFC reader, and more recently, the company expanded this access in other regions due to increasing regulatory pressure.Now, a new national payment system in Brazil has a regulatory body taking an even closer look at the iPhone’s NFC, and it appears the company isn’t willing to budge.
Apple’s NFC rules probed in Brazil Since 2020, Brazilians have enjoyed Pix, a free and instant pay ecosystem created by the Central Bank of Brazil.Recently, the institution announced the rollout of Proximity Pix, which does exactly what it sounds like.Google was quick to adopt the feature free of charge to more than 40 participating banks.
Apple, however, didn’t.This angered banking institutions and associations, who brought the case to CADE, the country’s antitrust regulator.Banks claim that Apple’s rules for accessing the iPhone NFC are prohibitively strict, one of which charges a fee of up to 0.17% per transaction, which banks, and especially fintechs, claim creates a barrier to competition.
Following a public session with banking institutions and representatives, CADE opened a preliminary probe into what it classified as Apple’s monopoly in the proximity payment system.The group also accused Apple of imposing “restrictions and difficulties to favor its own digital wallet”.In its defense, as reported by Tecnoblog and Tilt, Apple said “there is no law that stops Apple from charging a fee for the use of its services” and that this is not a monopoly case, since the iPhone represents only 10% of the Brazilian smartphone market.
Moreover, the company claimed that “there is no evidence of any harm to mobile payment services in Brazil or to Brazilian consumers.”
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