PayPal helped initiate EU rulings against Apple payments

PayPal was one of several companies that made an informal complaint to the European Commission about restricted access to Apple’s NFC technology for payments. On Monday, the Commission released its preliminary findings, which suggest that Apple unfairly prevents competitors from using NFC payments tech on Apple devices.

Why should we care?
Bloomberg’s findings suggest that fintech giants are using legal mechanisms to compete with one another, much in the same way that banks have lobbied for an equal regulatory playing field between themselves and scrappier startups. But the intentions of PayPal and European regulators definitely diverge. PayPal, on the one hand, probably wants an even match with Apple so that it can establish its own market dominance (and resolve some of its stock-market woes). It might envision an oligopoly. European Commission regulators, on the other hand, may see PayPal and other players as a means toward a more open market, and, eventually, something resembling perfect competition. If Apple’s NFC restrictions are overruled by the European Commission, then we might expect fintech competitors to increasingly use political channels to alter the landscape in their image. You might be able to use PayPal on your iPhone for NFC payments, too.