EU Apple suit alleges anticompetitive Apple Pay practices

It is set to be a contentious morning in Cupertino as Apple execs wake to the announcement of a new European Union investigation into anti-competitive practices.  The European Commission is examining Apple Pay, particularly how the tech giant restricts access to hardware and software third-party digital wallet apps needed to …

[Anonymous Coward]

Chump Change

As EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager has said, Apple prefers paying fines to obeying antitrust orders.

And given that the fines are no more than rounding errors on Apple's Income Statement this makes sense.

I don't know what the EU's potential antitrust penalties are but an Interpol arrest warrant for Tim Cook would be satisfying.

[iron]

Re: Chump Change

So what you're saying is you didn't bother to read the last paragraph in the article?

The max fine of 30% is clearly stated although the article doesn't clarify if it is 30% of revenue or profit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Chump Change

There is the theory and then there is the practice.

To date, the EU has only fined Apple $5.7m and I stand by my rounding error comment.

The biggest fines, including Apple's, have not been for antitrust but for tax evasion, which falls under their purview.

The biggest fine for what the US and UK would consider antitrust has been Google's $4,5b. It is, of course, being appealed and the EU Courts have been known to strike down fines (they just struck down Intel's $1.2b fine). Even if all of Google's fines, which total about $8.7b since 2017, were upheld it represents 1.2% of Google's revenues of $711b over that time so not quite a rounding error but close.

BTW, the 30% refers to the app store tax, not the maximum fine.

[diodesign]

revenue or profit

It's revenue (sales), which I've inserted into the piece.

C.

[fidodogbreath]

Not sure I would want any old app to be able to access and create NFC payments on my phone -- Android or iOS.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

The sensible thing for a good operating system to do would be asking you if the app should be permitted to process payments by NFC.

iOS, and recently Android, no longer ask if your answer might hurt corporate revenue even the slightest.

[John Brown (no body)]

An Apple spokesperson made much the same argument to The Register

S/He will have an imminent meeting with HR for that lapse :-)

[FirstTangoInParis]

Why buy Apple kit?

I do because (a) the kit works, and (b) works well with other Apple kit. The two Android phones I’ve used from work were utterly exasperating. I’m really not interested in using some third party payment app on a device where one actually works already. The EU need to get off their soapbox on this one.

[MrDamage]

Re: Why buy Apple kit?

Alternatively, Apple can obey the fucking rules, or get the fuck out of the EU.

There is no technical, or security reason for not opening NFT. It's greed, pure and simple.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Why buy Apple kit?

@MrDamage

"There is no technical, or security reason for not opening NFT"

Are you absolutely sure about that? Where can I find confirmation of that fact?

[mark l 2]

Re: Why buy Apple kit?

Your statement that you happy to use Apple pay because it already works the exact reason why the EU are investigating whether Apple are using technical restrictions to lock out other payment providers from NFC, and thus gain a monopoly by making the competition less attractive to use.

Today its Apple restricting access to NFC and not allowing other browser engines or 3rd party payment options in apps. But who know what else they might decide to restrict 3rd party access to in the future in the name of 'security' if Apple launched their own version of an app and cripple third parties ability to compete on a level playing field.

Microsoft did similar things back in the 90s and early 2000s as a way of killing the competition, and people were up rightly up in arms about that.

[DS999]

Re: Why buy Apple kit?

Apple hasn't ever launched a new app on the iPhone and locked out existing apps from participating. The browser has existed since before iOS allowed third apps. There were no NFC payment apps when Apple Pay came along because previous iPhones didn't have the NFC hardware.

That's not to say there isn't some merit to the EU's position, but your comparison to what Microsoft did in the 90s is way off base. Apple has never locked out third party apps from functionality they used to have because Apple introduced their own app.

[O RLY]

Re: Why buy Apple kit?

Yes, they have. There used to be several virtual assistants until Apple bought what became Siri, for example, but then they were banned for replicating iOS functions. Time-based blue light reduction apps existed until Apple added Night Shift. One of those app makers, F.lux, pushed hard to be reinstated and insinuated their IP was stolen.

We can dissemble about browsers, but all browsers on iOS devices are reskinned WebKit at their core. Are they really "third party?"

[Lorribot]

I would love to say this should be good, but....

...even if the EU win Apple will only be obliged to comply for EU residents which we of course or not so Apple can carry on treating us like shit as our government could not be arsed to go through the same legal proceedings as we don't have a law from 1806 to cover it.