Apple has until the end of the month to respond to a set of technical and legal issues from CADE, Brazil’s competition watchdog, reports MacMagazine — as translated by 9to5Mac.
“On Tuesday (17), the agency sent a formal notice to the tech company, requesting information on fees, technical requirements, and contracts signed with developers in Brazil. The company has until March 30 to respond,” says MacMagazine.
A lawsuit in Brazil was motivated by complaints from banks and fintechs that claim that Apple limits the use of NFC technology to its own ecosystem, making it difficult to offer competing digital wallets on iOS.
However, in its document to CADE, Apple pointed out that the iPhone accounts for 10% of the smartphone market in Brazil. The tech giant also noted that Brazil was the first country in Latin America to launch Apple Pay and that, since 2018, more than 40 banks and issuers have already offered the service to their customers. Worldwide, the solution is present in 89 markets and is offered by more than 11,000 banks.
In the document to CADE, Apple said that companies that advocate free or almost free access to NFC payments on iOS have a direct economic interest in reducing their own costs.
“In addition, these companies are interested in promoting an NFC access model that, unlike Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, introduces frictions that can limit the willingness of users to easily switch between different payment cards, by requiring them to select a new payment solution each time they want to use a different card,” Apple added.
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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today
