In a recent statement to Brazil’s competition watchdog, Apple leaned on an increasingly familiar argument as it pushed back against pressure to further open up the iPhone’s NFC access. Here are the details.
Apple pushes back on Brazil’s NFC pressure
Last year, Brazil’s central bank (Banco Central) and banking lobby group Febraban asked CADE, the country’s competition watchdog, to investigate whether Apple was unfairly limiting third-party payment providers’ access to the iPhone’s NFC compared to its own services.
In response, Apple sent CADE a list of counterarguments, including that it holds just 10% of Brazil’s smartphone market, and that third-party developers have had access to the iPhone’s NFC since 2024.
Apple also said that the Brazilian marketplace was well-served with payment options, to the point that Apple Pay was not “causing damage to the consumer, nor the exclusion of competitors,” and that there was “nothing in Brazilian law that prevents Apple from charging a fee for its services,” as Tecnoblog reported at the time.
Apple’s “well-served with payment options” touches on PIX, a local, free, and instant payment system launched in 2020 that is by far the country’s most used payment method.
Last year, Banco Central rolled out a contactless protocol for PIX, which Apple (contrary to Google) has refused to adopt, deeming it a non-essential feature for Brazilians, who still rely heavily on PIX payments via QR codes rather than the relatively new contactless method.
A few days ago, Apple sent CADE another statement, further reaffirming its stance.
As reported by O Globo, the company’s local legal team argued that “there is a desire by third parties — specifically banks and payment service providers — to act as ‘free riders’ on Apple’s proprietary technologies, without having to compensate Apple for its related investments in research and development and for ongoing services — such as provider audits, due diligence, and continuous monitoring of the security of payment infrastructures.”
In addition, they said:
“(…) these companies are interested in promoting an NFC access model that, unlike Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, introduces friction that may limit users’ willingness to easily switch between different payment cards, by requiring them to select a new payment solution each time they want to use a different card.”
Apple’s statement came almost exactly one month after some of the company’s representatives met with Banco Central’s director of regulation, Gilneu Francisco Astolfi Vivan.
The meeting was closed to the press, and no details were disclosed beyond the fact that it would cover “regulatory issues,” according to Vivan’s official schedule for January 15.
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