Swiss Competition Commission is now investigating Apple for iPhone NFC access | Infinium-tech
Apple has found itself in the crosshairs of the European Commission several times over the past few years, and is now also being investigated by the Swiss Competition Commission (SCC).
This has to do with access to NFC on iPhones. Apple began allowing third-party access to the NFC chip last year, after an initial rollout in the EU. But if you want to use the iPhone’s NFC chip, you’ll have to enter into a commercial agreement with Apple and pay the fee it requests, and that’s exactly what the SCC is investigating.
That is, the SCC is trying to find out whether Apple’s terms and conditions for granting this access could raise competition law concerns in Switzerland. The SCC says it “seeks to clarify whether other providers of mobile payment apps can compete effectively with Apple Pay for contactless payments with iOS devices in stores”.
Interestingly, the SCC says that Apple’s terms and conditions for providing access to NFC to third parties “differ from the rules applicable in the European Economic Area (EEA)”. However, this is only a preliminary investigation and it is not clear how long it will take. We’ll let you know when we know more.
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