The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has not granted permission to three of the big banks to form a bloc in their negotiations with Apple over its digital payments service, but the decision is not final.
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But Apple says providing access to the phone’s transmitter to allow bank applications to facilitate contactless payments would compromise the security of Apple’s hardware.
The Australian Settlements (ASL) has issued a statement on the public register, strongly encouraging the ACCC to grant authorisation to the applicants and ASL and that many of its members would like to join the collective bargaining and collective boycott as proposed in the application.
The banks also want to retain as much of their interchange fees as they can for cards loaded onto Apple Pay, but the issue of fees was not included in the ACCC application, with the banks saying fees remain an issue for each individual bank to negotiate.
Apple has had a partial win in its attempt to prevent banks using iPhones’ NFC chips for payment services other than Apple Pay.
The ACCC said that its decision not to grant the banks the interim ruling was not indicative of whether the full ruling, expected in October, would be successful or not.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said it hadn’t made a decision in the short timeframe requested by the banks because it needed to look more deeply into the potential impacts of such a boycott on consumers, the finance industry, and other parties. “Most have little direct insight into Apple Pay or Apple’s terms (case in point, one applicant bank has refused to even enter into a confidentiality agreement with Apple to allow for preliminary discussions about the terms under which it would participate in Apple Pay)”, it said.
“The ACCC requires more time to consult and consider the views of industry, consumers, and other interested parties”, he said.
A spokesman for the banks said they would continue their ongoing consultations with the ACCC until the final determination is made.
“The entire ACCC authorisation process usually takes up to six months, including the release of a draft decision for consultation before making a final decision”.
The banks are seeking “to ensure that Australian customers are able to choose between different mobile wallets to make payments easily”, he said.
ANZ is the only one of Australia’s big four banks to so far strike a deal to offer Apple Pay to its customers.
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Novantas senior advisor Lance Blockley on behalf of the banks recently revealed that ANZ had initially lined up to join the fight, but then changed tack and joined with Apple Pay.
