EU to Accuse Apple of Blocking Apple Pay Rivals

Apple will be facing new antitrust charges in Brussels next week over how it reportedly restricts rivals from accessing its mobile payment system, the Financial Times (FT) reported Thursday (April 28).

This comes while the European Union is setting up its newest challenges against the tech giant. Apple is reportedly going to be accused of breaking EU laws in how it operates Apple Pay, which is a payments system on “hundreds of millions” of iPhones, per the report.

Investigators reportedly plan to accuse Apple of unfairly blocking groups like PayPal and leading banks away from accessing its mobile wallet system. If the charges are upheld, the company would potentially get heavy fines that are worth up to 10% of global turnover.

The FT wrote that the move shows how the EU is getting more into a bigger regulatory crackdown on Big Tech. Google, Facebook and other similar companies have faced criticism from regulators in the last few years.

The case opened in 2020 and is one of several investigations opened in Brussels against Apple. The company hadn’t faced antitrust charges from the EU before 2021. Two other cases involve investigators probing into whether Apple has harmed competition in the books and music streaming on the App Store.

PYMNTS wrote that Apple has been warning developers that it’ll remove their apps and games from the App Store if they haven’t been updated in a “significant amount of time,” with the company giving them 30 days to update their apps.

See also: Apple to App Developers: Update or Get Out

“You can keep this app available for new users to discover and download from the App Store by submitting an update for review in 30 days,” Apple wrote in an email shared on Twitter. “If no update is submitted in 30 days, the app will be removed from sale.”

The change will reportedly not affect any apps already on users’ devices, and the company said it wants to make sure that the apps available are “functional and up to date.”