Apple warns of risks posed by new German mobile payments law
Apple has criticised German lawmakers after they passed new legislation that would force it to open up its mobile payment system to rival providers.
This was part of an amendment to an anti-money laundering bill and is set to come into effect early next year. The legislation, which does not name Apple specifically, will force operators of electronic money infrastructure to offer access to rivals for a reasonable fee.
“We are surprised at how suddenly this legislation was introduced,” Apple said. “We fear that the draft law could be harmful to user friendliness, data protection and the security of financial information.”
Meanwhile, in the USA…
Last month, we reported that Apple Pay had overtaken Starbucks as the most popular mobile payment app in the US, according to eMarketer.
The former is set to be available in 70% of US retailers by the end of 2019. eMarketer principal analyst Yory Wurmse said the service was now expected to account for 47.3% of mobile payment users. The Starbucks app will have 25.2 million users this year (39.4% of users).
“Apple Pay has benefited from the spread of new PoS systems that work with the NFC signals Apple Pay runs on,” Wurmser commented. “The same trend should also help Google Pay and Samsung Pay, but they will continue to split the Android market.”
Total spending via proximity mobile payments will approach $100 billion this year in the US, he added.