The European Central Bank is opposed to Apple’s proposed changes to the iPhone’s near-field communication at the core of Apple Pay, and has complained about it to the European Commission.
Pietro Cipollone, a member of the executive board of the ECB, expressed the bank’s concerns over Apple’s proposal. Cipollone explained that Apple’s proposed changes would be insufficient in several ways:
The letter argues that by not providing third parties with full access to the Secure Element of its NFC technology, Apple Pay maintains an unfair advantage against third-party payment apps on iPhone. Because of these limitations, contactless payments made through third-party apps on iPhone would be less user-friendly and ultimately be slower than Apple’s offering, according to Cipollone.
