The EU must draft new rules forcing mobile phone manufacturers to open up the existing NFC chips to other services.
Without that access, for example, banks invest less money in the development of payment services. Apple, in particular, is known for restricting access to the iPhone’s NFC chip.
The current European rules are not suitable for enforcing access to the chips with which wireless payment is possible. This is only possible if there is a choice between different payment apps. Apple users can use Apple Pay with their phone, people with an Android phone can use Google Pay.
The regulator concludes that there is a chicken-egg problem. An extra payment app will only be developed if it can use the NFC chip, while such an extra app is needed to enforce that access.
The ACM does not mention Apple by name, but European investigations into the American tech company are ongoing. Banks in other countries such as Australia have also been complaining for some time that they are not allowed to do anything with the NFC chip of the iPhone and the Apple Watch.