Google, PayPal protest against Brits' pay-by-bonk threesome

Google and PayPal have reportedly been whispering to the EU that allowing the UK operators to band together and promote NFC payments would be anticompetitive and shouldn't be allowed. The news comes from the Financial Times, which reports that the EU's ongoing investigation into Project Oscar has been taking informal …

[James Micallef]

Browser / media player solution

Just allow the operators to develop their system, and don't allow them to set it as the default payment system, allowing a choice of paypal or google as an alternative.... same as MS was forced to do with browser and media player, except that the choice is given to the user from the very beginning rather than after years of monopoly.

That's how competitive markets work to the consumer's benefit

[Anonymous Coward]

My heart bleeds

If they run their UK finances from the UK /and pay fair tax/ then I'll listen to their mewling, until then I don't care.

NB: I realise that some UK telcos aren't exactly spotless in the tax avoidance matter, but they're not the ones complaining at the moment, I will give the same response to them if they start complaining.

[Anonymous Coward]

*Submission from Google*

whaaaaaaa sob!! Someone is developing a platform with potential wise use that we cant slurp data from... or use to invade privacy of users.

NO FAIR!!!!!!

Not my data you dont.. no gmail.. no google search... nothing....

[Gene Cash]

Paypal... anticompetitive...

Pot... kettle... black.

[eSeM]

FFS Google, stop winging and get a move on introducing wallet in the UK.

[ratfox]

Hungry?

Hungry's no country I ever heard of...

[toadwarrior]

I wouldn't trust my payment details to google or any other advertiser so they can stuff wallet up their backside.

[Antony Riley]

I wouldn't trust my payment details going through any big multinational payments company (visa, mastercard, american express). Unfortunately there's not really any alternative these days, one imagines phone/nfc payment will eventually replace plastic in ubiquity.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Thus Google, and PayPal, will be complaining that the market dominance of the three operators involved in Project Oscar will effectively lock them out"

A bit like the arrangement with PayPal and eBay then? Bit hypocritical.

[chr0m4t1c]

eBay own PayPal, so that particular arrangement isn't entirely unexpected.

Personally, I don't trust the Oscar people very much, but I don't trust PP or Google at all.

[Anonymous Coward]

So...

..if you shop at next you MUST use a Next credit card? If buying from Amazon, you MUST use Amazons finance?

This also existed before the two were in bed together.

[Lewa]

Nothing against Google per se

I'm aware big companies will never be 100% safe/confidential. I don't care if it's Next or Sainsbury's or Google, someone will be misusing my data somewhere.

However as others have said, this sounds like a hypocritical whinge on Google and Paypal's part. If I want eBay items, I pretty much *have to* pay wth Paypal. I was also under the impression that Google Wallet/Checkout were rare beasts in the wild, most people sticking to the Paypal or Amazon that they know.

I really hope the UK Telcos stick it to them.