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Sydney — Commonwealth Bank of Australia accused Apple Inc. of uncompetitive action over managing telephone payments on Thursday. This has grown to about one-third of all face-to-face payments, the country’s largest lender process.
Matt Comyn, CEO of a Sydney-based bank, said that payments via a digital wallet developed by Apple and Alphabet Google can be debited online or directly.
“… I think Apple’s claim to be competitive is a fair statement as long as no one can compete with Apple and admits that competition is welcome,” Comyn told a regular parliamentary commission.
Banks have asked Apple to release their mobile phone’s Near Field Communication (NFC) chips to use their own apps. US companies estimate that they account for 80% of all contactless payments made via smartphones and smartwatches.
In Australia, contactless payments are growing rapidly, boosted by COVID-19 pandemics and mobile payment services such as Apple Pay, and Comyn estimates that customers use more than 90% of their transactions. I am.
Apple has demanded that banks process all contactless payments via digital wallets and pay private fees, but declined to comment after being contacted by Reuters.
“This is similar to imagining today’s world where Apple’s phones can only identify the carrier used by Apple,” said Comyn.
Shayne Elliott, CEO of the Australian and New Zealand Banking Group, the country’s first and fourth largest lender to link Apple Pay and credit cards, said he wasn’t focusing on the issue “until that particular complaint.” rice field.
“It’s ironic that one of Australia’s largest companies is dissatisfied with having to deal with other big competitors,” Elliott told Parliamentary Commission.
Last month, Apple said in a Senate survey that its payments app was “competitive,” accusing companies of asking them to scrutinize their products “for their own commercial interests.” bottom.
The survey results have not been published.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), which is considering whether Apple has violated competition law, declined to comment on Thursday.
Its chief, Rod Sims, told the Australian Financial Review last week that the problem was complex and that antitrust agencies “are working on it with an open mind.”
Unlike Apple, search giant Google allows banks and other third parties to access NFC chips.
The study is under close scrutiny by global regulators for Apple’s and Google’s mobile market dominance.
South Korea last month approved a bill banning major app store operators, including Apple, from forcing software developers to use payment systems.
In Germany, lawmakers moved in 2019 to force Apple to open its mobile payment system to its rivals at a reasonable price.
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