The timing of the appearance of a replacement for Apple Pay on iPhone has been announced

The European Commission (EC) has finally approved Apple’s plans to open its ecosystem to third-party payment systems. The Financial Times (FT) reports this.

For the first time, representatives of the European Union (EU) accused Apple of violating competition law in connection with payment systems in 2022. According to the newspaper’s sources, the EC appreciated the significant concessions that the American IT giant made in order not to be fined. Thus, the EU approved the appearance of alternative payment systems on the iPhone.

FT insiders named the timing of the appearance of a replacement for Apple Pay on the brand’s smartphones. All bureaucratic procedures and preparations are expected to be completed within a few weeks. That is, we should expect new payment systems to appear on the iPhone before the end of summer.

Apple also confirmed that third-party payment services will work separately from Apple Pay and the Wallet digital wallet. Thus, they must be completely independent. The Corporation and the EC agreed that the agreement will be valid for 10 years. The Financial Times article notes that representatives of the London startup Curve have already expressed their desire to add their payment system to the iPhone.

Apple’s proposal to add third-party payment systems to the iPhone first became known at the end of January. Apparently, in this way the American company tried to avoid fines in Europe.