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US tech giant, Apple Inc, faces another heat in Europe as the EU antitrust regulators have asked the online sales companies whether they have been told to use its mobile payment service instead of rival services.
Quoting to the questionnaire sent in August, the Reuters reported that, “The European Commission said that it had information that Apple may have restricted the online payments for the purchase of goods and services made through merchant apps or website, which is a breach of EU antitrust rules.”
“The questionnaire has also asked the companies that if they were under a contractual obligation to enable a certain payment method, and also if such contracts include the conditions for integrating Apple Pay in their apps and websites.” the report said.
“The regulatory also wanted to know if Apple has rejected merchant apps as incompatible with its terms and conditions for integrating Apple Pay in their apps,” it added.
Speaking on the developments, the EU competition enforcer said that, “The commission is actively monitoring the development of the mobile payment solutions, the behavior by operations active in the payment sectors including the mobile payment service providers.”
Apple Pay, which was launched in October 2014 by Apple, has been criticized since the launch for restricting the rival payment methods by embedding NFC chips in the iPhone, which automatically selects Apple to pay for payment of goods and services.
Recently, Swedish Music streaming company Spotify Technology SA also raised too complained, “for unfairly limit rivals to its streaming services.”
In the statement by Apple, the official said, “Its payment system offers the safest and most secure solution in the market as evidenced by the thousands of banks using it.”
Further adding to this, Apple said: “iPhone has completely transformed mobile payments by providing customers with a choice of how to pay, including cash, credit card, and debit card, as well as using apps from the major banks and financial institutions.”