Apple has let UK developers use iPhone contactless payments since October 2024. Two years on, zero have launched, and the competition regulator still will not name a price for access it already granted.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
.jpg){kind=link}
In short. On 20 October 2026 the Competition and Markets Authority announced proposals to force Apple to open up iPhone contactless technology, saying "Apple's fees and rules are blocking UK fintechs and other businesses from innovating and growing" and that, unlike in the EU, "not a single firm has launched a wallet-type product to compete with Apple's in the UK" [1]. The CMA's own underlying consultation document, published the same day, says Apple made its NFC and Secure Element platform available in the UK in October 2024, two years before this release, and that some UK firms have already been authorised to use it (para 1.13, page 7) [2]. The same document says the EU got that access free of charge under a binding 2024 legal commitment; the UK access Apple already grants is not free, and the CMA's new proposal does not set a price either, leaving it to a "principles-based" negotiation after any final decision. Three documented mistakes: four stars.
The Competition and Markets Authority wants a bigger story than the one its own evidence supports. Its 20 October 2026 press release opens with Apple "blocking UK fintechs and other businesses from innovating and growing," and draws a stark line against the EU, where "just six months after Apple agreed to provide NFC access for payments... Vipps launched the first alternative payment app, followed by PayPal, Klarna, Curve, and BBVA" [1]. Read next to the CMA's own 147-page consultation document, published the same day as evidence for the same case, the picture is not access versus no access. It is free versus paid, and the CMA's fix for that gap has, for now, no price attached to it either.
The claims, tested
| The document's own words | What the public record shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| "unlike in the EU, not a single firm has launched a wallet-type product to compete with Apple's in the UK" [1] | The CMA's own consultation document: "In October 2024 Apple made its 'NFC & SE Platform' available in the UK and other jurisdictions... two years after the platform became available there is still no evidence of NFC apps launching in the UK using the platform" (para 1.13, page 7) [2] | The press release's own notes-to-editors mention that "Apple currently only offers SE in the UK" but never says since when; the two-year gap and the fact firms have already been authorised to use it both come from the CMA's own evidence document, not the release |
| The EU comparison is presented as proof the UK market is closed by Apple | The same document: in the EU, "the European Commission accepted legally binding commitments from Apple to provide NFC access for payment using HCE, with access free of charge" (para 1.14, page 8); the UK access Apple already offers is Secure Element only and is not free, and CMA evidence finds "Apple's current fees are too high to support commercially viable entry" (para 1.16, page 9) [2] | The EU and UK outcomes diverge on price and technical scope, not on whether Apple opened the door at all; the release's framing collapses that distinction into a single "unlike the EU" line |
| Proposals would make access "commercially viable" with fees "substantially lower than Apple's current fees" [1] | The consultation document: "The CMA is not proposing to set the price and terms of contactless functionality access. Instead, it has proposed principles" (page 9); compliance is to be judged by Apple providing "sufficient evidence... to the CMA's satisfaction" (para 4.211, page 95) [2] | No number is proposed anywhere in either document; the actual price is deferred to a future compliance process Apple itself supplies the evidence for |
The mistakes, counted
The release implies Apple has given UK developers nothing, when its own evidence says access has existed for two years (1). The press release's central contrast, that the EU has five launched payment apps and the UK has none, appears without any mention that Apple opened a UK NFC and Secure Element platform in October 2024 [1]. The CMA's own consultation document states plainly: "In October 2024 Apple made its 'NFC & SE Platform' available in the UK and other jurisdictions. Apple has stated that there is significant and growing interest in the NFC & SE Platform in the UK... and recently, Mastercard and Visa announced services intended to support developers using this platform. However, two years after the platform became available there is still no evidence of NFC apps launching in the UK using the platform" (para 1.13, page 7) [2]. A footnote to that same paragraph goes further: Apple told the CMA that as of September 2026, a number of UK-based firms (redacted in the published document) had already been authorised to use NFC in the UK. Firms have access; they are choosing not to build on it. The press release's single sentence, "unlike in the EU, not a single firm has launched a wallet-type product to compete with Apple's in the UK," is true as stated but reads, without that context, as though Apple has refused UK developers outright.
The EU comparison obscures that the two markets got different things, not different amounts of the same thing (2). The release's notes-to-editors say only that "Apple currently only offers SE in the UK, and the proposals mean that it would be required to offer both HCE and SE" [1], without saying what SE-only access actually costs developers, or what the EU got instead. The consultation document spells it out: "In July 2024, the European Commission (EC) accepted legally binding commitments from Apple to provide NFC access for payment using HCE, with access free of charge and with supporting functionality such as default wallet choice" (para 1.14, page 8) [2]. The UK's October 2024 access, by contrast, is Secure Element only, and the same document records that "the evidence we have gathered indicates that Apple's current fees are too high to support commercially viable entry and expansion for many developers" (para 1.16, page 9) [2]. Zero UK launches against five EU launches is the number the press release leads with; free, legally guaranteed access against paid, discretionary access is the reason its own evidence gives for the gap.
The headline fix for high fees sets no fee (3). The release promises proposals "expected to result in substantially lower access fees, helping make it commercially viable for more businesses to innovate and compete" [1]. The consultation document is explicit that no figure is being proposed: "The CMA is not proposing to set the price and terms of contactless functionality access. Instead, it has proposed principles for how this should be determined, with the expectation that charges would be substantially lower than Apple's current charges" (page 9) [2]. The mechanism for checking compliance is self-supplied: "We expect Apple to provide sufficient evidence of the appropriate application of each of these principles to meet the compliance requirements of the proposed NFC Access CR" (para 4.211, page 95) [2]. Even if the conduct requirement is adopted after the 17 November 2026 consultation closes, the document's own implementation timetable adds further delay: the requirement "would come into force three months following our decision on any final NFC Access CR and its imposition," and Apple then has "within one month of imposition" just to submit an implementation plan (para 4.257, page 107) [2]. None of that runway, or the absence of a number, appears in the press release.
Credit where due
The consultation document is not trying to hide any of this; every finding above is drawn from pages the CMA itself published alongside the release, with the October 2024 access date, the EU/UK technical divergence, and the decision not to fix a price all stated in the CMA's own words, not extracted from a buried footnote the department would rather forget existed [2]. The CMA also sets a genuine, workable compliance mechanism once a final decision is made, with quarterly compliance reports from Apple and a stated duty to "keep under review the extent to which Apple is complying with the NFC Access CR" (page 107) [2]. And the underlying evidence for a genuine problem, that two years of access have produced no launches, is solid: it comes from Apple's own submissions to the regulator, not from a complainant with an interest in the outcome.
Verdict
Four stars, from three documented mistakes. The underlying case for intervention may well be right: a platform that only a handful of authorised firms have touched in two years, on fees the regulator's own evidence calls too high for viable entry, is a reasonable target for a conduct requirement. What the press release does not do is tell that story. It tells a simpler one, Apple blocking the UK while the EU moves ahead, that the CMA's own 147-page evidence base does not support without the missing two years, the missing free-versus-paid distinction, and the missing number.
The star score counts three documented mistakes. First, the release's central EU-versus-UK contrast omits that Apple opened UK NFC and Secure Element access in October 2024, two years before this release, with some UK firms already authorised to use it. Second, the release does not explain that the EU's success rests on free, legally guaranteed HCE access secured in 2024, while the UK access Apple already offers is paid and Secure-Element-only, a difference its own consultation document gives as the likely cause of the launch gap. Third, the release promises "substantially lower" fees without disclosing that the CMA is not proposing to set a price at all, leaving it to principles Apple itself supplies compliance evidence for, with the requirement not taking effect until three months after any final decision. Three falls in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. This piece makes no finding about the conduct of any named individual; the drafting of a press release and a consultation document is an institutional process. Checked directly against the press release and the consultation document, both fetched 26 October 2026.
Sources
- CMA outlines proposals to unlock contactless technology on Apple iPhone, Competition and Markets Authority, published 20 October 2026
- Consultation document: NFC access, Competition and Markets Authority, published 20 October 2026